GRACE ILLUSTRATED; 

OR, 

A BOUQUET FEOM OUE MISSIONARY GAEDEN. 



MR. and MRS. C. H. WHEELER, 

MISSIONARIES IN HARPOOT, 
EASTERN TURKEY. 



W I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse : I have 
gathered my myrrh with my spice." 




BOSTON: 

CONGREGATIONAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY, 

BEACON STREET. 

■ 




BOSTON : 

STEREOTYPED BY C. J. PETERS AND SON, 
73 FEDERAL STREET. 



Franklin Press : Band, Avery \ Sf Co., Boston* 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

I. A WORD WITH THE READER. . . 5 
H. BLIND JOHN CONCORDANCE . . .11 

III. BLIND DONABED ..... 58 

IV. THE VICTORIOUS BAKER • . .64 
V. CRITICISM DISARMED . . . .72 

VI. LITTLE GREGORY 77 

VII. SEED BY THE WAYSIDE . . . 89 

VIII. DEACON HAGOP 99 

IX. THE BROKEN VOW . . . . 123 

X. ONE OF GOD'S "HIDDEN ONES " . . 127 
XI. THE LITTLE HUMPBACK. . . . 132 
XII. KOORDISH AMY . . . ... 148 

XIII. A PILLAR REMOVED • . . 166 

XIV. DEACON AVEDIS . . . .173 
XV. DER KEVORK 179 

XVI. "THE LORD'S BEDROS". • • . 190 



4 CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

XVII. 44 THIEF MAGHAK" 202 

XVIII. DIVERSE GIFTS 206 

XIX. GRACE ABOUNDING 215 

XX. PATIENT SARKIS 224 

XXI. THE DESPAIRING SILVERSMITH • . 234 

XXII. THE KOORDISH MISSIONARY . . . 240 

XXIII. THE LITTLE SYRIAN MAID . . . 247 

XXIV. MISS M. E. WARFIELD .... 255 
XXV. THE MAN WHO MUST PREACH . . 262 

XXVI. OLD SARAH . . . . . 268 

XXVII. BEGO THE WIFE OF DONO . . . 274 

XXVIII. THE AGED AUCTIONEER. . . . 282 

XXIX. PILGRIM ANNA 304 



GKACE ILLUSTBATED ; 

OB, 

A BOUQUET FKOM OUE MISSIONAEY GARDEN, 



I. 

A WORD WITH THE READER. 

gINCE the enjoyment of a book by both 
writer and reader depends much upon 
their mutual good understanding, and as 
the aim of this little volume is liable 
to be misunderstood, before going out to 
gather our missionary nosegay, let us have a 
plain, frank chat about it. 

Methinks I hear you asking, "Are not 
you the same pastor whom we saw, some 
twenty years ago, selecting a library for his 

5 



6 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



sabbath school, and casting out from the 
hundred volumes before him more than a 
score of " Memoirs " as not worth the labor 
of examination ? And didn't this same little 
wife of yours approve the deed? And do 
you two now put your heads and pens 
together to impose upon the long-suffering 
public a score or more of memoirs in a single 
volume ! " 

Yes, we are the same couple, and, strange 
as it may appear, we're of the same opinion 
still ; and that is one reason why, fearing 
that our little book may fare like poor Tray 
at the hands of other selectors of sabbath- 
school libraries, we propose to protect it 
from unsafe company by a different name ; 
and rightfully, for we shall aim to make it a 
different thing. 

The purpose of these life and death 
sketches is not at all to immortalize certain 
surprisingly good little saints, or large ones, 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



7 



such as we used to read about in our child- 
hood, and despairingly wish that we too 
might have been born such angels. For, to 
tell the truth, though the gospel has in some 
cases had wonderful power in subduing 
stubborn hearts here, and though Jesus has 
put his hands upon the heads, and by his 
grace touched the hearts, of some little ones, 
yet we have still to wait for the first saint, 
large or small in all our mission-field, who 
could equal the sample in most of those 
old-style memoirs. It is a gratifying though 
surprising fact, that, in more modern days, 
professedly fictitious religious writers have, 
while printing fiction on the titlepage, so 
far removed it from their delineations of the 
Christian life, as to give us a juster portrait 
of the actually existing Christian militant 
than had his preceding biographers. Bio- 
graphical angel wings take time to grow now, 
and are not made to order. 



s 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



We may as well confess to some perplex- 
ing questionings in fixing upon a name for 
our humble messenger. Nothing high-sound- 
ing or pretentious will do, of course : so we 
search on the common level. 44 Call it 
'Living Stones,'" says one. But we do not 
feel at all in an architectural frame of mind. 
44 4 First-Fruits,' then, or 4 Sheaves,' " adds a 
second; to which we reply, 44 4 Handfuls ' shall 
be the s name, if any thing in that line ; for 
the sheaves are yet to come." — 44 But 4 Bou- 
quet ' is tame and commonplace." — 44 Yes, and 
truthful and comprehensive too; for, while 
it hints just the thing we wish to do, it 
suggests, also, the way of doing it.' We 
don't propose to talk of missionary policy, 
which some may think was done too exclu- 
sively in a preceding volume, nor of the 
missionary work in any form as seen from its 
human side, nor even to speak of results as 
such, however heart-cheering this employ- 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



9 



ment might be, but only to take a quiet 
stroll with you, if you will, in the garden of 
the Lord, plucking, meanwhile, here and 
there a flower, a bud, a twig, a leaf, a blade 
of grass, as pleasant mementoes of our visit. 
Wearied and harassed by the toils and 
anxieties of even the joyous missionary 
work, it will be well for us thus to turn aside 
and rest a while, and not unpleasant for you 
to join in contemplating these more spiritual 
manifestations, which, though but incidental 
to the one great result of missions, are more 
potent than mere material effects to cheer 
and sustain the followers of Christ in the 
hard work of evangelism which they have to 
do. As our bouquet is to consist of natural 
flowers, not artificial, or, in other words, as 
the aim of these sketches is to give the 
reader a view of their subjects just as we 
have seen or are seeing them, we shall try to 
make the portraits true to life, even when 



10 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



disclosing blemishes we would gladly conceal. 
We shall thus gain a juster conception of 
the character of the missionary work, and 
be able more intelligently and heartily to 
glorify the grace that is carrying it on, when 
reminded that our bouquet was gathered not 
from the primitive paradise, but from one as 
yet but partially regained and restored. 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



11 



II. 

BLIND JOHN CONCORDANCE. 

TN the spring of 1864, when our theologi- 
* cal seminary was four years old, and the 
female seminary two, two equivocal candi- 
dates knocked at their doors, — a blind man 
and his wife from the village of Mashkir, on 
the Euphrates, some thirty-five miles north- 
west from Harpoot. The man, Hohannes 
("John") byname, had in early life, like 
thousands in this land, lost his eyes by small- 
pox, and then paid, if possible, a heavier 
penalty for loss of sight and beauty by wed- 
ding such a wife as he could get. 

The unfortunate blind man — or "Enlight- 
ened one," as the poetic sympathy of the 
Orient names him — who has not wealth or 



12 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



high reputation, must accept a wife who is 
at the same discount as himself, either by- 
loss of both eyes, or of one eye plus partial 
want of beauty and brains, or, finally, one 
who has two eyes, but very little or none of 
the last two accomplishments. Unfortu- 
nately, Hohannes, or his friends for him, had 
only supplied his most sorely felt deficiency, 
by taking a wife with eyes only; and the 
result was, that the female-seminary candi- 
date said by her first look, " To be sure, I 
can't learn even my a, 6, c's ; but then I can 
attract the attention of all by my Esqui- 
mau style of beauty." Trial had proved 
her truthful; and so she could not be ad- 
mitted. 

And what should we say to the other 
candidate ? " Paradise Lost " and the " Iliad " 
witness, indeed, that pre-eminent ability 
may exist behind sightless eyeballs ; while 
Milton, Socrates, and, for aught we know, 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



13 



old Homer too, combine to bid us beware 
of rejecting, without further examination, a 
literary aspirant because of conjugal infeli- 
cities. But, then, they do not encourage 
us to hope that blind men tied to uncon- 
genial wives will be hopeful theological 
students. Yet Hohannes was admitted to 
examination, and, like Pope's traditional 
toad, turned out to have, beneath his far 
from handsome exterior, a very " precious 
jewel " in both head and heart. While his 
wonderful acquaintance with the Bible had 
won for him in his native village the 
surname of Hamapapar (" Concordance 
subsequent events showed him to be pos- 
sessed of an innate power of using his 
acquired gift, which, in spite of all his dis- 
abilities, made him surely the most gainful 
candidate to the cause who ever spent two 
years in Harpoot Seminary, or perhaps any 
other, even if it does not justify " The New 



14 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



York Independent " in saying, that " perhaps 
no man of the age has done a more impor- 
tant work than blind Hohannes." 

Surely, at least, that brother missionary 
stands rebuked, who, alluding to our receiv- 
ing him to the theological, and " Kohar " to 
the female seminary, taunted us with " re- 
ceiving the lame, the halt, and the blind to 
our schools, because," as he said, " they are 
cheaper; " which reason is so far from being 
true, that blind students cost us more than 
others ; and this one, at least, was worth many 
times what it cost to train him, and support 
him in the work. He left the seminary in 
October, 1865, and died in March, 1869 ; yet 
in that brief time he made for himself a 
name both in this and other lands, which will 
not soon die. But we have promised to be 
strictly truthful in painting our characters, 
and may as well confess here, that, stored as 
head and heart were with the word of truth 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



15 



which sanctifies the soul, he was yet appar- 
ently a good way from attaining complete 
sanctification. His wife complained that he 
didn't love her as well as he should, and 
died — was it from a broken heart? — not 
long after he entered the seminary. We are 
quite sure, however, that if the philosophic 
theory were true, which subjects the affections 
to the will, the poor man would have been 
less faulty here. But he was by no means 
the exemplary student we wished to see him, 
since he expected, and rather demanded, as a 
condition of obedience to the few necessary 
rules of the seminary, that we should imitate 
his habit in dealing with those whom he 
sought to win to the truth, and " satisfy his 
conscience " by giving chapter and verse to 
justify each requirement. I have sometimes 
imagined that there is something in the loss 
of the eyes which makes one unreasonably 
exacting. Perhaps he was thinking of the 



16 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



scriptural declaration in regard to bestowing 
more abundant honor on those members 
which lack, and so felt that he had a biblical 
claim to be petted. 

He, at least, put in his claim as a blind man 
to be excused from compliance even with 
such rules as he could find no chapter and 
verse to invalidate. Annoyed by the fumes 
of new, and the stench of old tobacco-smoke 
elsewhere, we resolved to enjoy exemption 
from it on the theological premises ; but " of 
course the rule didn't apply to a man with- 
out eyes." This notion, that no rules 
applied to him, was indulged to such an 
extent as to lead, at length, to a crisis, and a 
somewhat ludicrous exorcism of the trouble- 
some spirit. 

Near by the door of the theological semi- 
nary was that of the female-seminary harem, 
over which all Oriental customs and preju- 
dices, as well as our own promise to parents 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 17 

to leave to them their daughters' matrimonial 
arrangements, compelled us to write, " Taboo 
to lovers and love-letters." Hohannes' 
inability to love satisfactorily her who had 
died did not prevent him from being 
insnared by the sweet tones of the assistant 
teacher, into whose hands, by lying in wait 
at the forbidden door, he one day succeeded 
in slipping, not the usual romantic nonsense, 
but a plain, outspoken epistle on the business 
in hand ; and, having done this, he waited 
somewhat impatiently for the expected reply, 
little suspecting that she, as in duty bound, 
had handed the letter unread to her supe- 
riors. So when, a few days later, the 
students were sent forth, two and two, for a 
brief vacation preaching-tour, and Hohan- 
nes' name was not read with the rest, to his 
prompt inquiry, " And where shall I go ? " 
came the reply, " You, brother, can stay here, 
and attend to your matrimonial affairs." 

2 



18 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



The Harpoot parsonage was then in build- 
ing, and a man needed to sift dirt for mortar : 
so when Hohannes added, " But how shall I 
earn my bread?" we replied, "If you feel 
penitent enough over that love-letter, we 
suggest that you do it by sitting in dust and 
ashes, and using that sieve." He did it ; but 
the joke leaked out, and from that day to 
this there have been no more liers-in-wait at 
the tabooed door. 

During his " short course " of two years* 
Hohannes made more than average progress 
in his studies, which were, exegesis of Scrip- 
ture, theology, and preaching, and graduated 
with his class in 1865. He had meanwhile 
manifested much shrewdness and enthusiasm 
in evangelistic labor in the vicinity, fre- 
quently succeeding, partly from the fact of 
his blindness, but mostly from his natural 
sagacity, in gaining access to Armenian 
churches. He was specially skillful in 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



19 



silencing opponents, chiefly by a ready and 
dexterous use of Scripture, but often by an 
adroit turning of his antagonist's weapons 
against himself. A single incident will 
illustrate this latter trait. The priest of a 
certain village frequently visited by the 
students had a trick of asking them whether 
they had studied a certain branch of knowl- 
edge, of which he was, doubtless, even more 
ignorant than most of them, and then, on 
their confessing that they had not, turn- 
ing to the people, who knew not even the 
name of the wonderful study, with the 
triumphant inquiry whether a man so igno- 
rant as that was fit to preach the gospel. 
When several unfortunate theologues had in 
this way been worsted, Hohannes started for 
the place, declaring that he would silence 
the wily priest. So, having committed" to 
memory a long list of authors who have 
treated on the old man's favorite study, he 



20 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

replied to the usual question by glibly 
rattling off those authors' names, and inquir- 
ing to which of them he referred. It was 
now the priest's turn to bear the laugh ; and 
he never again dared attack a Protestant 
preacher. 

Hohannes' blindness, of course, caused 
him much inconvenience in getting about, 
sometimes even when he had companions. 
Once, in a hilly region, his two fellow-travel- 
ers left him for a moment, going in different 
directions to decide on the correct road, and, 
on their return, could find no Hohannes, but 
at length tracked his mule down a very steep 
hillside, into a ravine, at the bottom of which, 
on one side they discovered the animal, and 
on the other his master. When left alone, 
the mule, with something of his rider's 
originality of purpose, decided to choose a 
path for himself, and, spite of all his opposi- 
sition, had carried him off. Finding that 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



21 



the beast was taking him down such a road, 
and resolved not to be lost, even if the mule 
was, he had slipped off to wait the issue of 
events. 

But, in spite of obstacles, his zeal and 
energy carried him on, resolved to accom- 
plish feats of travel and evangelism deemed 
difficult even for men with eyes. Among 
other things, learning of the darkened con- 
dition of the Armenians in Eussia, he re- 
solved, at all risks, to visit and supply them 
with portions of the Scriptures. So he 
ordered a box made of thick boards, so 
hollowed out by mortising, that he might fill 
the cavities with very thin copies of the 
separate Gospels, and thus take them, undis- 
covered, across the border. But by our 
advice this plan was given up ; and, shortly 
after graduation, he went to Shepik, a 
wretched little village of some forty houses, 
about fifty miles north-west from Harpoot, 



22 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



in which was a church whose pastor's lack 
of energy had put to sleep that small part 
of the people who adhered to him, and so 
deprived himself of all support. 

When he appealed to the Evangelical 
Union for aid, they advised him to leave for 
a time, and go to a hostile village and get 
roused up, and invite Hohannes to come and 
wake up his people. He went ; and, when 
the people met him with lamentations over 
poor crops and poverty, he bade them begin 
their lamentations at another place, and 
remove the cause by repaying God that of 
which they had robbed him. Then taking 
for his text, " Bring ye all the tithes into the 
storehouse," &c. (Mai. iii. 10), he enforced 
the duty of paying into the Lord's treasury 
one-tenth of all their earnings. 

His sermon we reserve to be reported as 
subsequently preached in the Harpoot pulpit ; 
but its immediate fruit in Shepik was re- 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



23 



markable. 1 The pastor was called back to 
find a different church from the one he left. 
Would that as great a change might have 
been wrought in his good but sluggish 
nature ! But Hohannes' work went on. 
The little mustard-seed, thus sowed in this 
insignificant village, soon became a tree of 
so wide-spreading branches, that multitudes 
of churches and communities in this and 
other lands rested under the shade, and par- 
took of the fruit of it. In the hard struggle 
to lead the people out of the Egyptian 
bondage of dependence on foreign aid, and 
introduce self-support, and consequent inde- 
pendence, among the churches, we mission- 
aries had apparently reached a Red Sea, 
through which God only could open a way 
to go forward; and by the hand of this 
humble man he did it, and we were soon 

1 Those wishing to do so can find the particulars in 
ehap. x. of "Ten Years on the Euphrates." 



24 



GEACE ILLUSTEATED. 



singing songs of deliverance on the other 
side of the flood. We have not, indeed, yet 
crossed the Jordan, and begin to fear that 
our sins may deprive some of us of the 
privilege of leading the people into the 
goodly land by completing in our field 
the work to be done here by the American 
churches- This is not the place to go into 
particulars of results of the tithing move- 
ment, the good fruits of which are increas- 
ing with the advance of time. While no 
attempt is made to constrain persons, church- 
members or others, to pay tithes, yet the 
feeling is becoming more and more wide- 
spread, that while the giving of this exact 
proportion of income is not divinely fixed as 
an invariable rule for all, and while each 
person may decide for himself to what 
special department of Christian expenditure 
he will appropriate his tithes, yet the system 
offers the simplest and most practicable 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



25 



method of providing for evangelistic ex- 
pense, and is at the same time most beneficial 
spiritually to the contributor. Though the 
sermon of Hohannes, as reported by Miss 
West for "The Missionary Herald," of 
October, 1868, has been scattered by tens 
of thousands of copies over England and 
America, it may profitably find a place here. 
We give, of course, only a brief abstract. 
Blind men don't write their sermons, nor 
even preach from notes. Miss West says, 
" I wish you could have seen for yourself 
how interested the people were in the dis- 
course. The blindness of the preacher added 
to the interest. Saying, 6 We will read ' such 
a 6 chapter ' or ' hymn,' he would repeat the 
same, word for word. When he called upon 
the people to read, it was for their sake 
rather than his own ; and, when the reader 
had reached just the point he desired, he 
never failed to say, ' Stop,' that he might take 
it up just there. 



26 



GFRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



" He began by repeating that striking pas- 
sage, 4 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have 
robbed me. But ye say, Wherein haye we 
robbed thee? In tithes and offerings,' &c. 
(Mai. iii. 8-10.) He then, in few words, 
told us that he proposed to show from the 
word of God that giving a tenth to the 
Lord was a primitive institution, attended 
with great benefits and blessings to the 
givers, and perpetuated and enforced under 
the new dispensation no less than the old. 
4 Open your Bibles,' said he, 6 at the fourteenth 
chapter of Genesis, and let some one read 
the eighteenth and twentieth verses.' Bibles 
were instantly opened all over the house, and 
the passage read in clear tones by one of 
the congregation. 6 Abraham gave tithes to 
Melchizedek,' said the preacher, 4 more than 
four hundred years before the giving of the 
law to Moses, — Abraham, "the father of 
the faithful," whose children the Jews glory 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



27 



in being, — Abraham, whom even Moslems 
honor, and call " the blessed." Now turn 
to the twenty-eighth chapter, and read the 
twentieth, twenty-first and twenty-second 
verses.' Jacob's vow was read, concluding 
with the words, 6 And of all that thou shalt 
give me, I will surely give the tenth unto 
thee.' He then rapidly drew the contrast be- 
tween Jacob's going to Padan-aram, — alone, 
and in utter destitution, — and the return, 
with his flocks and herds, and camels, men- 
servants and maid-servants ; for, in spite of 
Laban's covetousness, the man had increased 
greatly. ' And now,' he said, 6 open at the 
twenty-seventh of Leviticus, and read the 
thirtieth verse. "And all the tithe of the 
land is the Lord's" 9 repeated the preacher. 
'Nine-tenths for yourselves; but one-tenth 
"is holy unto the Lord." Open at Numbers 
eighteenth, and read the twentieth, twenty- 
first, twenty - sixth, twenty - eighth and 



28 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



twenty-ninth verses.' This was done ; and 
then Hohannes briefly commented on each 
verse. He said the Levites, who ministered in 
the house of the Lord, were to have no part or 
inheritance in the land ; for the tithes of the 
people were to be their inheritance ; and of 
these tithes they were to offer a tenth to the 
Lord, 4 even of all the best thereof.' ' Read 
Deut. xiv. 22, and xxvi. 12. See the abun- 
dant provision made, not only for the Levites, 
but also for the " stranger, the fatherless, 
and the widow." Read, also, 2 Chron. xxxi. 
4-10, where the people are described as 
obeying the command of God, and bring- 
ing in " abundantly " of the " increase of 
the land." And the chief priest answered 
King Hezekiah, when he questioned him 
concerning the " heaps :" " Since the people 
began to bring the offerings into the house 
of the Lord, we have had enough to eat, and 
have left plenty ; for the Lord hath blessed Ms 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED . 



29 



people; and that which is left is this great 
store." Now read Neh. xiii. 10, 13, and 14. 
Mark the contrast ! The people no longer 
gave tithes: the house of the Lord was 
desecrated; and the Levites had forsaken 
their sacred office, and "fled, every one to his 
own FIELD." 

" ' And now,' continued the preacher, 6 we 
will turn to the new dispensation. Open at 
the twenty-third of Matthew, and read the 
twenty-third verse : " These ought ye to have 
done, and not to leave the other undone," are 
our blessed Saviour's words to the scribes 
and -Pharisees. Ye do well to pay tithes: 
it is your duty. But ye ought also to do 
judgment, mercy and faith. Now turn to 
Luke xi. 42 : " Woe unto you Pharisees ! for 
ye tithe ... all manner of herbs, and pass 
over judgment and the love of God : these 
ought ye to have done, and not to leave the 
other undone." Read Luke iii. 7-12: " Bring 



so 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



forth fruits worthy of repentance" ' repeated 
the preacher. ' John the Baptist was a 
connecting link between the Jewish and the 
gospel dispensations ; and he spake as he was 
moved by the Spirit of God. " Now, also, the 
ax is laid at the root of the tree." What 
tree ? It was nothing less than the tree — 
the root — of self and selfishness. 

" 6 What this good fruit is he tells us in the 
eleventh verse : " He that hath two coats, 
let him impart to him that hath none ; and 
he that hath meat [food], let him do like- 
wise." Where, now, remains the tenth?' he 
exclaimed. ' Under the new dispensation, 
not one-tenth merely, but one-HALF, is re- 
quired.' (At this announcement, there was 
an evident sensation in the audience, many a 
face lighting up with a smile, as the electric 
current shot through the assembly.) 

" The preacher continued, Read now the 
sixth of Luke, thirty-eighth verse : " Give, 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 31 

and it shall be given unto you." Give, <md 
you shall have wherewith to give. Shut /our 
hand and your heart, and you shut the 
windows of heaven ; you keep back the 
blessing of God. See what Christ sajs in 
Luke xii. 33 : " Sell that ye have, and jive 
alms," &c, which means, consider your- 
selves as stewards of God's grace on the 
earth, seeking your inheritance in the ^ jrld 
to come. You are to set light store by • our 
earthly possessions, and lay up treasuia in 
hdTlven. Now read Luke xiv. 33.' Slowly 
and solemnly the preacher repeated the 
words of the Master: '"So, likewise, who 
soever he be of you that forsaketh not ALL 
that he hath, he can not be my disciple.' 
Ah, my brethren,' said he, ; it is not merely 
a tenths or even a half, of our worldly pos- 
sessions, that Christ claims : it is our ALL ! 
Think upon the meaning of those words. 
It is thus he speaks to you: If you wish 



32 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



to be my disciple, you must count the cost 
You can not serve two masters, "^ou must 
give up every thing that the children of this 
world seek after. You must hold yourselves 
aloof from your earthly possessions ' [such 
is the Armenian version of Luke xiv. 33], 
4 holding to them loosely, setting your affec- 
tions on things above. Your comfort, pleas- 
ure, honor, ease, yea, your very life, you 
must esteem as nothing in comparison with 
my service. And in thus losing all, you will 
find all, and that for ever. 

" ' Open your Bibles at Matt. xix. 29, and 
Mark x. 29, and read the glorious promise to 
those who truly " forsake all " for Christ and 
his cause. See ! ' exclaimed Hohannes, after 
solemnly repeating the passage, — 6 see how 
rich the reward ! a hundred-fold in this life, 
and life everlasting beside ! Now open at Luke 
nineteenth, and read from the second to the 
tenth verse. Note the words of Zaccheus, 



GBACE ILLUSTRATED. 



33 



" The half of my goods I give to the poor," 
and mark the answer of our Saviour. But 
what say you ? Is salvation to be bought 
with money? We all know that it is " with- 
out money, without price." Why, then, this 
blessing upon Zaccheus ? ' — 6 Because,' an- 
swered one of the congregation, 8 the giving 
was the fruit of his faith.' — ' Yes,' rejoined 
the preacher, ' Zaccheus brought forth fruit 
worthy of true repentance, and immediately 
received the promised blessing. 

" 4 Now let me tell you a story. When I 
was in the class in sermonizing, in the semi- 
nary, our teacher was very anxious that we 
who were soon to go forth as preachers, and 
perhaps become pastors, should work upon 
right principles ; and he often talked to us 
of our duty as leaders to teach the people to 
do for themselves. He sometimes told us 
of places where much money (of the Board) 
had been expended by missionaries, and but 

3 



34 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



little real good accomplished, because the 
people had not been taught to give for 
Christ's cause. " In one little village," he 
said, " forty thousand piasters" [sixteen hun- 
dred dollars] " of the Board's money was 
spent ; the people only giving fifty piasters 
during thirteen years. And the work in 
that place amounts to nothing to-day, be- 
cause of this unwise course." It so happened, 
that, when my course of study was finished, 
I was appointed to that village. It was the 
last place I should have chosen. I had no 
desire to go to that field ; but God had so 
ordered, and I went. The missionaries told 
me that my wages would be fifteen hundred 
piasters per year, of which the people were 
to pay six hundred ; and, before I left, one 
of them took me aside, and counseled me to 
make it as easy for the people as possible, by 
eating at their houses, &c, because it would 
come hard to them at first to do so much. 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



35 



" ' Soon after I went there, a neighboring 
pastor came over to the village, and we held 
a meeting with the brethren. We talked 
about my support ; and it seemed that they 
had, with much difficulty, subscribed five 
hundred piasters per year. I told them 
the missionaries had said they would pay 
six hundred. "Never!" they exclaimed. 
" We cannot raise another para " [one-for- 
tieth of a piaster] . And pastor M said 

it was impossible ; they were too poor. 
"Where, then, shall I get my other hun- 
dred?" I asked. "We will help you from 
our place," he replied. 

" 6 But my mind was not at rest. . That 
night I thought much on the subject. I 
said to myself, " Suppose the American 
Board should one day withdraw its support 
from this and other 'feeble churches, what' 
will become of them ? " And I prayed, " O 
thou who knowest all things, and with 



36 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



whom are all plans, sliow thy ignorant ser- 
vant how thy kingdom can best be estab- 
lished in this land." And it seemed to me 
that a voice said in my soul, " It can be 
done by giving one in every ten" When I 
thought it over, it occurred to me to test 
it first in my own case. One-tenth of my 
fifteen hundred per year would be one hun- 
dred and fifty piasters. "No," I said, "I 
can't give so much as that : I should suffer 
for it." But, when I took it out of every 
month's salary, it did not seem so much. 
" One-tenth of my one hundred twenty five 
will be twelve piasters and a half. I can do 
it" , I said, " and I will, even if I do have 
to pinch a little." It happened that pastor 

— visited us about that time, and I laid 

the subject before him. "It can be done," 
he said ; " and it must be. I will give a 
tenth of my salary." And so said preacher 
, who also came over. " Well, then," 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



37 



I said, "do you think it will do for me to 
lay it before the brethren?" — "Yes," they 
replied : " it is the best thing you can do." 

" 6 So I prepared myself, and preached to 
the people on the next sabbath. The .Lord 
blessed his own word. They accepted it, 
and came together to be " written" for their 
tithes. When we made a rough estimate, 
it appeared that their tenths would exceed 
my entire salary. "Why, how is this?" 
they all said. "It was so hard before! 
but now it comes very easy, and it is truly 
pleasant." 

" c Now, to show you how God blessed that 
little flock, I will mention one case. One 
brother had a vegetable-garden, which the 
Turkish official, in assessing the tax, had 
estimated at nine hundred piasters for that 
year's produce, taxing him ninety piasters. 
Others said it was too much : it would not 
produce that amount. But mark the fulfill- 



38 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



inent of the promise in Mai. iii. 10. That 
brother sold three thousand piasters' worth 
of vegetables from that garden, besides what 
was eaten by a household of thirty-two per- 
sons, and given away ; amounting to full three 
thousand more. Others were also blessed ; 
and all acknowledged that they had never 
known a year of such prosperity. The peo- 
ple not only supported their preacher and 
school-teacher, but also paid over two thou- 
sand piasters for other purposes. 

44 The preacher was about to close his dis- 
course, when a member of the congrega- 
tion arose, and asked permission to say a 
few words. 4 1 have learned,' he said, 
4 from one of the missionaries another 
truth, which has great weight in this giving 
of one-tenth of our income to the Lord. 
Under the old dispensation, the Jews were 
only required to care for their own nation ; 
but, under the new dispensation, the com- 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED . 



39 



mand is, " Go ye into all the world, and 
preach the gospel to every creature." There- 
fore a tenth is not enough for Christians to 
give- 

" To this, the teacher responded, 4 A tenth 
is the very least that a disciple of Christ 
can give. Over and above that, he should 
give as God prospers him. And now,' he 
added, 6 let us seek the aid of the Holy 
Spirit, that we, and all our offerings, may 
find acceptance before God.' " 

To this report, Miss West adds, "It is 
difficult to do justice to a scene and a ser- 
mon so unique. When that sightless man 
was led up into the pulpit, his appearance 
was any thing but attractive. He looked 
rough, and uncared-for, quite inferior in 
person. But he had a message from the 
Lord of hosts; and well did he deliver it, 
reminding one of the words, 'God hath 
chosen the weak things of the world to con- 



40 



GKACE ILLUSTRATED. 



found the things which are mighty ; and 
base things of the world, and things which 
are despised, hath God chosen,' &c. It was 
worth much to see and hear one who had 
been so evidently taught of the Spirit, and 
made the honored instrument of laying a 
new foundation-stone for the building of 
Christ's church throughout the world. For 
the new ray of light that dawned in that 
obscure village of Armenia two years since 
has begun to radiate from many distant 
points ; and we believe that it will solve the 
problem of the support of Christian institu- 
tions in all lands, and hasten the day when 
the earth shall be filled with the glory of 
God. Well may every worker in foreign 
lands say with Jesus, 4 1 thank thee, O 
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because 
thou hast hid these things from the wise 
and prudent, and revealed them unto babes. 
Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in 
thy sight.'" 



GEACE ILLUSTRATED. 



41 



With his restless longing to preach the 
gospel in regions beyond, Hohannes had re- 
solved to go to Moosh Plain, a week's jour- 
ney east of Harpoot, of the ignorant and 
wretched condition of the Armenian inhabit- 
ants of which he had heard from missiona- 
ries and native pastors who had visited it 
the year before ; and, at the date of preach- 
ing this sermon (May 3, 1868), he, with 
another missionary volunteer like himself, 
was on his way thither. 

Eeaching the place, his companion, now 
Pastor Garabed of Haboosie, was located 
in the city of Moosh ; but Hohannes went 
to what we may hope was the most wretched 
spot of that pre-eminently wretched dis- 
trict, the village of Havadoric. Mr. Cole 
of Erzroom, who visited the place in 1872, 
thus writes of it : " It is a village of some 
fifty houses, situated half a mile up a steep 
mountain-side, where it overlooks most of 



42 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



the great Moosh Plain. We saw tokens 
of abject poverty in the whole region, 
but in this village more than all. We 
visited the people at their homes ; and 
such dingy, dirty, dark abodes for human 
beings, I have never seen in Turkey. In 
all the village were only two guest-rooms, 
— raised places in the corner of a stable, 
inclosed by a low mud- wall, to separate 
guests from the cattle. Others have nothing 
but the poorest kind of c doonj a sort of 
sheep-pen affair, windowless, with only a 
hole in the top to let the smoke out. And 
in these hovels, such poverty ! As to cloth- 
ing, I should say there was nothing you 
could dignify by that title, — mere tattered 
rags hanging from shivering forms. As 
cold weather comes on, many of the children 
must stay in doors to keep from freezing. 
At night, when you and I lie down in our 
soft, warm beds, think of their lying down 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



43 



upon the cold, hard ground, with a few 
squalid rags for their bed of down." 

Of the Moosh Plain itself, Mr. H N. Bar- 
num, who visited it in 1867, wrote, " This 
plain is about sixty miles long, and ten or 
twelve wide, and contains about seventy 
nominally Christian villages. More than a 
week were we detained ; and I question 
whether Providence did not detain us that 
we might see and feel more deeply the 
wants of that region. It was now genuine 
winter weather ; yet I think I never saw 
anywhere else, not even in the warm sun- 
shine of Egypt, so much nakedness, total or 
partial. Adults, of course, had the sem- 
blance of clothing, though it was often a 
mass of rags and shreds sewed or tied 
together. But the poor children ! It makes 
my heart ache to think of them.. Some had a 
tolerably whole shirt and drawers ; and some 
had no drawers, and what was once a shirt 



44 



GEACE ILLUSTE ATED . 



was now a few shreds hanging from the 
shoulders. Many had only a rag on the 
shoulders, as a sort of jacket, with holes to 
put the arms through ; and others had not 
a thread upon their bodies. The people 
seem to be almost wholly destitute of beds. 
Wherever we went, we found that the beds 
were a piece of carpet, or felt, or coarse 
straw-matting, or a little straw, with a piece 
of carpet as a covering. In six or seven 
villages which we visited, we did not notice 
a woman or a child who had either stock- 
ings or shoes for the feet. They walked 
about in the snow and mud, and over the 
frozen ground, with bare feet. Our pastors 
had never seen destitution like this, and it 
made a deep impression upon them. And 
the spiritual condition of the people is as 
bad as the physical. In the three or four 
monasteries surrounding the plain, there are 
said to be fifty vartabeds, men of more or 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



45 



less education. What a work they might 
do in these seventy villages, in improving 
the condition of the people, if they only 
had the heart for it ! But they are in a 
great measure responsible for this state 
of things. They come down periodically 
from their haunts of dissipation, and gather 
up and carry off whatever the people can 
spare ; and this has helped to discourage 
the people, and repress enterprise. TJie 
great want now is the pure gospel. This will 
not only save their souls, it will give them 
true civilization and refinement. To us 
the people seemed ripe for the reception 
of the truth. They are growing tired of 
the yoke, and are beginning to murmur 
against it. The pastors turned away from 
Moosh Plain with the determination to in- 
duce the Harpoot Evangelical Union, if 
consistent with the work undertaken in 
Koordistan, to do something for the Moosh 



46 



GKACE ILLUSTRATED. 



district. May the Lord strengthen them 
for it ! " If Mr. Barnum's pen, by a more 
vivid picturing of the poverty and degrada- 
tion of the inhabitants of the plain below, 
seems to dispute the pre-eminence in wretch- 
edness of Havadoric, we must remember 
that Mr. Barnum spent a cheerless, stormy 
winter's week on the Plain, while Mr. Cole 
saw the mountaineers only in their summer 
Sunday's best. Mr. Knapp gives an inlook 
upon an additional element of Havadoric 
degradation. " As I sat talking with the 
villagers about the necessity of educating 
their sons and daughters, I noticed a couple 
of the latter coming tugging up the exceed- 
ingly steep mountain, each with a ponderous 
load of brushwood and roots on her back, 
which had been gathered on the adjoining 
hills. As they came up, and threw their 
loads down near my feet, an old man turned 
round, and pointing to them, — down whose 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 47 

faces the perspiration flowed, while they 
were panting for breath, — exclaimed, 4 Edu- 
cate our daughters! Why, if we should 
do that, who would bring our woodV" 

To the work, then, in this metropolis of 
Turkey darkness and degradation, our mis- 
sionary devoted himself. But hardly had 
he reached his field when he gained his 
most coveted prize — was he in error who 
said missionaries always fare so ? — by get- 
ting a first-rate wife. Visiting the city of 
Bitlis, he met a pupil of the female sem- 
inary, who had rejected desirable offers of 
marriage, but, in spite of the opposition 
of friends, at once accepted Mr. Concord- 
ance, saying, "No matter if he is homely 
and blind, he's a Christian ; and I'll marry 
him." 

And thus, apparently, had Providence 
not only provided him with eyes, but the 
ignorant daughters of the village with an 
educator. 



48 



GEACE ILLUSTRATED. 



The story of their labors must, of course, 
be very brief; for Hohannes reached his 
field late in 1868, and died March 31, 1869. 
Mr. Knapp says of them, " They were doing 
a great work there." Sure we may be, that 
such a man, united to such a woman, could 
do nothing less than a great work, even 
when shut up in so small a field of action. 
Just how much of the striking spiritual 
work in that village was due to their labors, 
and how much to those of another " devot- 
edly Christian helper," Arakial — Apostle — 
by name, who had made his grave in that 
stricken village, we can not say. But the 
impress of one or both is indelibly stamped 
upon the people. A colporter who visited 
the place but a few days before the death 
of Hohannes, and while he was, with his 
characteristic earnestness, laboring to rouse 
and enlighten the people, reported the vil- 
lage as "a heaven on earth." Wrote Mr. 




ARMENIAN PRIEST. 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 49 

Knapp, in the same letter whose postscript 
told of the death of Hohannes, "In that 
village of forty houses, where a few years 
since the people were notorious for being 
robbers and murderers, like their Koordish 
neighbors, (how changed now ! ) there are 
sixty just learning to read, some of whom 
are upwards of eighty years of age." And 
while doing his utmost for his little flock, 
amono^ whom his influence almost obliter- 
ated the distinction between Armenian and 
Protestant, he forgot not to labor for the 
spread of the tithing principle. Writes Mr. 
Knapp, " He earnestly besought us to throw 
our influence in favor of the tithing system. 
And he practiced what he preached. His 
salary was only eight dollars a month ; and, 
although he had a wife and a lad to support 
from this, he gave without fail one-tenth 
into the 4 storehouse,' thus leaving seven 
dollars and twenty cents for the monthly 

4 



50 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



support of himself and family." When 
seized with the fatal illness, which lasted 
"but three or four days, he at once expressed 
the opinion that he should die, and made 
such arrangements as he could for the future 
comfort of his wife. Much of the time 
on his death-bed was spent in giving counsel 
to his little flock. So calm was he, and 
so confident of his approaching end, that 
he gave special directions for his burial, and 
had himself clothed with the apparel in 
which he wished to be interred! 

When his fellow-missionary went from 
Moosh for the burial-services, he expected, 
that, as uniformly happens in similar cases 
elsewhere, the Armenians would mani- 
fest hostility. But, instead of doing so, 
they vied with the Protestants in carrying 
out to the letter Hohannes' particular re- 
quests in regard to his burial; carrying him 
to their own cemetery, and seeming to be as 
genuine mourners as his own people. 



GEACE ILLUSTKATED. 51 

Such love had but four months of actual 
labor among them inspired among this sim- 
ple-hearted people ! A few months later a 
little company, accompanied by Mr. Knapp, 
gathered for the formation of a church 
among them. Mr. Knapp shall tell his own 
story of the scene. " The greatest feast of 
good things we enjoyed in Havadoric. Our 
own people" [of Bitlis] "had observed a 
day of fasting and prayer for the village, 
the villagers also observing the same day ; 
and the presence of the Holy Spirit was 
manifest. The worshiping congregation was 
in tears before God, and a number were 
converted. On the night of our arrival, we 
called together eighteen of the most promi- 
nent men; and each one, in reply to the 
question whether he desired a church to be 
formed, replied, ' Badvelly, I believe there 
ought to be a church ; but Jam not worthy 
to be admitted to it,' 



52 GEACE ILLUSTEATED. 

" On a following clay we spent ten hours in 
examining twenty-two persons. Their history 
and religious experience were exceedingly 
interesting, and most stimulating to* one's 
piety. Their piety is characterized by sim- 
plicity. 

" One, when brought under conviction, was 
in great distress in view of his past life. A 
notorious thief and robber, he with others 
had stolen from the flocks in many villages, 
often appropriating to himself but a small 
portion of the slaughtered prey, leaving the 
rest to be devoured by wild beasts. In one 
of the prayer-meetings he stated this fact, 
saying it would take half the village was 
worth to replace what he had stolen, and 
with tearful entreaty seeking forgiveness. 
They promptly replied, 'Brother, we most 
cheerfully forgive you. Go to the other vil- 
lages, and confess your thefts and seek for- 
giveness ; and if they demand restitution, as 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



53 



you are poor, we will help you pay the debt.' 
Another said he had defrauded government 
of taxes to the amount of five piasters (twenty 
cents), and he did not find forgiveness from 
God until he resolved to refund the amount. 

" One of two brothers, partners in business, 
had stolen a sheep from a Turk fifteen years 
ago. When brought under conviction, he 
went and confessed the theft ; but the haughty 
Turk would not forgive him on his restoring 
the sheep, but demanded what would have 
accrued as the product of that sheep during 
the fifteen years. In great distress, he went 
and- confessed all to his brother also, and 
asked what he should do. The brother 
replied, 6 Let us pray over it ; and, if the 
Turk adhere to his demand, we must refund 
the whole as he requires.' 

" They prayed, after which the man again 
sought forgiveness ; and, to his happy sur- 
prise, the Turk released him on his paying 
the sheep." 



54 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



Suffice it to say that a church of nine male 
and two female members was formed, the 
" delegates " from abroad being " surprised at 
1 the simplicity of faith and strength of Chris- 
tian character of the two latter." "And 
now " — April, 1870 — " seventeen houses, 
or one hundred and fifty souls, in the village, 
are Protestant; and the whole village, five 
persons excepted, are persuaded of the truth. 
Of the Protestants, sixteen promise tithes to 
the Lord. All the male members of the 
church but one give tithes." 

Well might Mr. Knapp add, "What a 
change has come over this village of Hava- 
doric ! " and " the 28th " of April, 1870, « was, 
I think, the happiest day of my life." 

In the autumn of 1871 Mr. Cole of Erz- 
room visited the place with Mr. Knapp, when 
a simple epitaph was engraved to his memory 
upon the flat stone that marks the grave of 
Hohannes, of whom he remarks, " The noble 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



55 



man seems to have left his imprint on the 
village." "Those," says he, "were happy- 
days that we spent among that poverty- 
stricken people. We found them so earnest, 
so rich in faith, many of them, that we 
thought little of the surroundings. The 
sabbath, what a precious day it was to us all ! 
A full house of such eager, earnest listeners 
— who could help preaching the gospel to 
them ! Their very presence seemed to be 
mouth, tongue, utterance, to the speaker. 

" Of the three exercises of the day, one 
most of all touched my heart, and that 
because of a single incident, which, perhaps 
better than any thing else, illustrates the 
utter poverty of the people. One of the 
eighteen members of the church presented 
his young babe for the seal of the covenant. 
It was too much. The tears went coursing 
down my cheeks in spite of me. I thought 
of the English consul's little boy, whom we 



56 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



had recently baptized in Erzroom, of the ele- 
gant baptismal robe that had come all the 
way from England to grace the occasion. 

" But here was a son of the faith, whose 
sole costume would hardly be considered a fit 
contribution to the kitchen mop in the West- 
ern world, — a mere bundle of old tattered 
rags ! Thank God, I said, their robes will 
be all one 'up there.'" 

True, brother, and yet not true. We 
query whether, "up there," some of these 
humble ones, with the . poor blind man who 
"pointed the way" thither, will not wear 
richer robes and brighter crowns than many 
of the great ones of the earth. 

God does not set his jewels here. 
Earth's shining ore, treasure of worldly great, 
Wherewith bedecked they walk in pride abroad, 
Will be but pavement for the gorgeous courts, 
Where, freed from all which weights and clogs them 
here, 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



57 



Clothed in the forms of heaven's own lustrous life, 
Endowed with affluence all unknown on earth, 
And robed in raiment brighter than the light, 
His chosen ones shall walk erect with him, 
The difference all u discerned " 

' Twixt those who serve him, those who serve him 
not. 

When earth, with all its pomp and power and pride, 

Shall fade and sink in the great final fire, 

His own, his jewels, spared from every harm, 

Who, scorned of men, oft to each other spake, 

Who prayed and toiled in pain and weakness here, 

Winning the wandering to the way of life, 

Shall shine as stars for ever and for ever. 

Their glorious setting then shall be 

The glittering crown upon the head of Him 

Who bought them with his blood. 



58 



GBACE ILLUSTRATED. 



III. 

BLIND DONABED. 

gOME eight years since, a poor blind 
beggar in Hoghi — there are multitudes 
of such in this land — was induced to attend 
a Bible-class opened by the Protestant 
pastor, and to commit to memory some 
verses of Scripture. Not long after, he 
obtained a copy of a primer for the blind, 
which he soon mastered ; and purchased all 
the books which were to be found in Arme- 
nian in that character, — the thirty-fourth 
and eighty-sixth Psalms, and the third chap- 
ter of John. 

It was soon proved by practical illustra- 
tion, that " the entrance of thy words giveth 
light: it giveth understanding unto the 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED . 



59 



simple." Though now the poor blind man 
has Matthew entire to read, and has good 
ear acquaintance with many parts of the 
Bible, it is deeply interesting to hear him 
give enthusiastic expression to his love for 
those "two psalms," which his fingers first 
read. "More to be desired are they than 
gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also 
than honey and the honeycomb," seems 
to him almost too tame to tell the precious- 
ness of those two chapters. He soon 
" tasted, and saw that the Lord is good, and 
blessed is the man that trusteth in him." 

Our first acquaintance with him was at a 
visit to Hoghi, some four years since, when, 
in a prayer-meeting, our attention was 
attracted to his earnest and really eloquent 
prayer, in which he was specially drawn out 
for the missionaries, that God by his Spirit 
would " sustain, comfort, and cheer those 
who, for his sake, have left home, country, 



60 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



and friends, and in their loneliness need so 
much that comfort which comes from on 
high." 

We began to query whether here might 
not be a successor to "Blind John Concor- 
dance." 

Having, by inquiry, satisfied ourselves of 
the integrity of his Christian character, we, 
a year afterwards, admitted him to the 
normal school. At the door of the school 
a difficulty arose. With a face full of 
sorrow, he informed us that he was thirty 
piasters ($1.25) in debt. His begging in- 
come, less the tithes paid into the Lord's 
treasury, had been less by this amount than 
his expenses for the year past. 

A "farewell begging-tour" of ten min- 
utes, taken by our leave among ourselves, 
settled that matter; and he entered the 
school free from debt, receiving for his 
support four cents a day from the missionary 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



61 



treasury. Let no one exclaim against the 
meanness of this sum, till informed, that 
having lived upon it for six months, and 
spent the succeeding winter vacation in 
labor on a salary of two dollars per month, 
he, the following year, gave up in despair, 
and went back to self-support at his old 
trade, when told, that, fearing students lived 
too poorly on their allowance, we had de- 
cided to feed them at a table of our own 
providing. " During the past year his four 
cents a day had sufficed for food and shoes ; 
and what should he do now for shoes ? " 

Let no one here propose to condemn him 
for going back again to begging, which is in 
this land a usual and honorable profession 
for " enlightened men." 

But our candidate is back again, . having 
meantime fared better than did poor John 
Concordance, by getting a wife with a fair 
amount of brains plus one eye, and who has 



62 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



been received to the female seminary. 
Protestant Christian blind men have a pros- 
pect of faring better matrimonially than 
have their predecessors. Whether this one 
will prove to be a worthy successor of him 
of Mashkir, we know not. Sure we are, that 
while, like him, he will, by the mere fact of 
his loss of sight, find access to some else 
inaccessible, and while, by his simple, earnest 
piety, he will be fitted to do good, he is not, 
like John, a semi-son of thunder, and so 
can not make the stir in the world which 
he did. 

Should he, a thing not improbable, finally 
prove himself unsuited for systematic evan- 
gelistic labor, and backslide into his old 
business, sure I am that the comparatively 
insignificant sum spent on his Bible training 
will pay as a missionary investment; for, 
going with open mouth as he did, from 
Marash on the south, to the Anti-Taurus 



GKACE ILLUSTRATED. 



63 



range on the north, he can not fail to drop 
much precious gospel seed, some of which 
must fall into good ground. He now goes 
out, with a salary increased to five dollars, 
to labor for a time, perhaps permanently, in 
Komk, one of the wickedest towns ariong 
the many wicked ones in our mission-fie"* 1. 

We ask on his behalf the prayers of each. 
Christian reader. 



64 



GKACE ILLUSTRATED. 



IV. 

THE VICTORIOUS BAKER. 

QOME twelve years ago, when the doc- 
trines and demands of the newly arrived 
gospel were in the mouths of many who had 
it not, — and in this way Christ was practi- 
cally preached by many who were experiment- 
ally ignorant of him, — a baker in Yegheki, 
Melcone by name, became roused to the 
question, whether it was not his duty to 
keep the sabbath holy, and his privilege to 
enjoy one day of rest in seven. 

Calling upon a priest to decide the ques- 
tion, he was at first informed that to bake 
and Sell bread on the sabbath is sin; and 
then, again, changing sides, the priest com- 
forted him by saying, "It is lawful to do 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 65 

good on the sabbath day ; and baking is a 
good and necessary work." The command, 
" Remember the sabbath day to keep it 
holy," still ringing in his ears, he called 
upon a second priest, who assured him that 
he was doing no wrong. But, as he says, 
the more men said, " Go on with your bak- 
ing," the more it appeared to him that he 
must conform literally to God's command ; 
and he decided to close his bakery on the 
sabbath. Feeling that in so doing he had 
done a good thing, he had a not unnatural 
feeling of satisfaction, slightly tinged with 
Phariseeism. In these circumstances, he one 
day found in a neighbor's house a primer, 
which, as he says, " opened of itself to the 
passage," which, after much effort, he spelled 
out, " 6 Be thou in the fear of the Lord all 
the day long.' " He had supposed his duty 
all done, and himself safe, in stopping bread- 
baking on the sabbath ; but here was a new 

5 



66 



GBACE ILLUSTRATED. 



command, which at once condemned him as 
a sinner. Borrowing the little book, he 
conned it day after day in search of more 
light, and at length decided to go at once to 
the fountain head, by purchasing the Prot- 
estant Testament. This done, he trem- 
blingly went to the neighboring town of 
Mezereh, and to the newly opened Protestant 
place of worship there. 

Ere long he had courage to visit the 
Protestant preacher in his own town, and 
finally to attend a meeting there on the sab- 
bath. Spies, whom the priests kept on the 
watch, at once reported the fact ; and when, 
at evening, he appeared in church, his name 
was read on the list of those whom the 
priest cursed for adhering to the Protestants, 
forbidding all persons to speak to, or to have 
any dealings with, them. 

; This was just the thing needed to make 
him decide, once for all, to waver no Ion- 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



67 



ger. He at once rose and went forward, 
and demanded by what right these curses 
were heaped upon him for reading a book 
which differs in no respect from the Tes- 
tament on the altar, except in being in 
the modern, spoken tongue. And, having 
shown that the priest had been acting con- 
trary to the spirit of their own Scriptures, 
he added, " Though I was not a Protestant, 
I become such now. I go out of the church- 
doors, and write upon them that I belong 
here no longer." And he was as good as his 
word. Henceforth he adhered to the little 
company of despised, persecuted ones. And 
now began his trials in the effort to keep 
the sabbath. Those who would gladly have 
had him close his bakery on the sabbath, 
that their own trade might increase, resolved 
now to prevent it, and complained of him as 
a person who caused the people inconven- 
ience by closing his bakery one day in seven. 



68 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



He was summoned before the pasha, and 
commanded to keep his shop open on all 
days. He pleaded his Christian faith as a 
reason for declining, but was told that other 
Christians baked and sold bread on the sab- 
bath, and he must do so. He was cast into 
prison, and retained there a day, but, remain- 
ing immovable, was finally discharged ; the 
pasha concluding to let him have his own 
way. Another and another effort was made 
through successive pashas, with the same 
result, till at length, after a four-years' 
struggle, his enemies joined hands for a final 
effort, and he was summoned before the coun- 
cil, and bidden in the most peremptory man- 
ner to keep his bakery open permanently. 
His answer was prompt and decisive. Tell- 
ing them that his religion forbade him to con- 
tinue his usual occupation on God's day, he 
added, " Though all the world unite in effort 
to compel me to violate my conscience, and I 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED . 



69 



be forced to beg my bread ; though you beat 
me, imprison me, and even take off my head, 
— I shall be of the same mind. I will not 
profane the sabbath." — "Close your bakery 
then," they replied. " Give me a paper," he 
replied, " certifying that you compel me to 
do this because of my adherence to my faith, 
so that all persons may know the reason of 
my punishment, and I will do as you bid." 
They declining to do this, he returned to his 
bakery, and took his seat upon the elevated 
platform from which customers are supplied, 
ready to continue his business, but was soon 
followed by an officer, who bade him close 
his doors, and surrender the keys. " Here I 
sit, and shall sit till removed by force," was 
his reply. The officer, astonished at courage 
so unusual, returned for further instructions 
from his superiors, who said, " You need 
not use force." He returned, and said to 
Melcone, " Bake on : I am instructed to let 



70 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



you alone." And from that day to this his 
victory has been complete. Nobody now 
imagines that he can be compelled to bake 
or sell bread on the sabbath. 

When the same officer was sent to com- 
mand some butchers to keep open shop on 
the sabbath, and they began to plead consci- 
entious scruples, he replied, " You'll not get 
off by that sort of easy, timid talk. If you 
expect to succeed, you must, like Melcone 
the baker, take your lives in your hands, and 
say, ' We will not.' " Hearing of Melcone's 
success, the Armenian bakers resolved to 
follow his example. 

But the stuff reformers are made of was 
not in them. Summoned before the pasha, 
and attempting to plead conscientious scru- 
ples, they encountered only ridicule. " You 
talk of conscience ! " exclaimed the ruler, — 
" you who manifest such scruples nowhere 
else. Melcone shows clearly by all his con- 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



71 



duct that he has a conscience ; and yon, that 
you are only pretending to have one. Stop 
your foolish talk, and get you to your work ; 
and, if I have any more trouble from you, 
you shall be suitably punished." 

To their work they went, and gave the 
pasha no more trouble. 

Melcone is now the chief baker in this city, 
and known by all as a God-fearing man. 

And he is no less bold and uncompromis- 
ing in practical Christian work, ready to do 
for Christ whatever his hand finds to do. 

Would that all Christians, like him, hav- 
ing succeeded in getting new-comers into the 
house of God on the sabbath, would, like 
him, at the close of service, take them aside 
to talk and pray with them in hope of sav- 
ingly impressing their minds with the truth 
they have heard. 

With even a few such faithful, earnest 
workers in every church, the millennial day 
would not long delay its dawning. 



72 



GKACE ILLUSTBATED. 



V. 

CRITICISM DISARMED. 

rjlHE man who disarmed it was one who, 
in all preliminary action, threatened to 
make himself its victim ; but he is first to be 
introduced to the reader. 

Some score of years ago, a boy in Diar- 
bekir, Geragose by name, and called, from his 
father's business, Hoharrarian, (son of the) 
" Cook," attached himself to the gospel party. 

Such was his father's rage on hearing the 
fact, that, seizing his carving-knife, he ran 
to seek his son, declaring he would kill him 
on the spot. Fleeing to the house of the 
missionary, the boy lay concealed till his 
father's wrath had sufficiently subsided to 
allow him to come forth. The father died 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



73 



not long after ; and in due time the son, 
grown now to manhood, and desiring to 
enter the ministry, appeared at the door of 
our Harpoot Theological Seminary, and was 
admitted ; his wife also entering the female 
seminary. With a personal appearance not 
very prepossessing, his face quite badly 
pitted by small-pox, and a somewhat hesitat- 
ing utterance, he excited no brilliant hopes 
for his future. As a scholar, he was not 
above the average ; and when he entered 
on his senior year, and began sermonizing, he 
discouraged his teacher by the apparent lack 
of definite thought in his " plans.'' This 
was specially true when he was about to 
prepare a written sermon for criticism, and 
presented a plan on Exod. xvii. 5, 6 : " And 
the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the 
people, and take with thee of the elders of 
Israel ; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest 
the river, take in thine hand, and go. Be- 



74 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

hold, I will stand before thee there upon the 
rock in Horeb ; and thou shalt smite the 
rock, and there shall come water out of it 
that the people may drink." 

In vain did I endeavor to gather from his 
"plan " what he purposed to do with this 
striking text, and at last frankly told him I 
feared he would " make nothing of it " in 
writing, unless he succeeded better in putting 
on paper the ideas which he proposed to 
amplify. Confident, however, that he could 
say at length what he could not in brief, he 
went to work, and in due time presented 
himself before his critics, his teacher and 
fellow-students, with a sermon in which he 
set forth in a clear, striking, forcible style, 
the work of the ministry, that of guiding 
and feeding the flock, under three heads : 
(1) Man's part, " Go thou, take the rod, 
smite the rock ; " (2) God's part, " I will 
stand before thee upon the rock ; and (3) 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 75 

the result, — " There shall come water out 
of it." 

" This result is sure to follow when the 
antecedent conditions have been complied 
with ; and, if it follow not, either God is 
false to his promise, or we to our duty. 
Mere going is not enough ; nor is it sufficient 
to take the rod : we must smite, and when 
and where God bids us. 

" How solemn the responsibility of stand- 
ing thus, with God before us, ready to bless 
or curse, according as we do, or fail to do, as 
he has bidden us! " As he went on, open- 
ing up and enforcing these ideas, one by one 
the critics' pencils dropped from their hands; 
and when, at last, he dwelt upon the awful 
guilt of the unsuccessful minister, and the 
blessedness of the privilege of being, with 
God's help, a successful one, opening foun- 
tains of living water for thirsty, perishing 
souls, tears stood in all eyes. Teacher and 



76 



GEACE ILLUSTRATED. 



pupils alike felt that we were in the pres- 
ence of God, and, instead of criticising the 
preacher, needed to look to our own case. 

And when, at length, the usual criticisms 
were called for, " It is a good sermon : let 
ns pray," was the only response. 

Criticism had been disarmed in the most 
effectual way, by making all feel that God 
was in that place, ready to bring us all into 
judgment. 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



77 



VI. 

LITTLE GREGORY. 
EARLY twenty years ago Mr. Dun- 



more, then a missionary at Diarberkir, 
a city on the Tigris, spent a night at Har- 
poot. 

The news soon reached the market-place, 
and spread from shop to shop ; for in those 
days a Frank was a new wonder in this city. 
The people soon learned that the stranger 
was a " missionary," one of the " wolves in 
sheep's clothing " that had, " in these latter 
days," begun to prowl about the Christian 
folds. The pious and vigilant gave an omi- 
nous shake of the head, made the sign of 
the cross oftener, and passed their beads 
through their fingers with greater rapidity, 




78 



GKACE ILLUSTRATED . 



an evidence that they were fully aware of 
approaching danger. 

Doubtless the shepherds warned their 
flocks, and commanded that all precautions 
should be taken, weak places strengthened, 
and the feeble ones helped out of danger's 
reach. Fathers carried the news to their 
homes, and kept strict watch there, lest 
some of their grown sons should be found 
outside after nightfall, and thus become a 
prey to the dreaded foe. Mothers listened 
with hushed voices, and pressed their little 
ones to their bosoms, lest some baleful influ- 
ence should reach them even within their 
home-circles. The grandmothers, too, were 
all at church next morning, and forgot their 
gossip and match-making during the service, 
while, with unusual devoutness, they made 
the sign of the cross on their breasts, and 
many genuflexions of bending, bowing, kneel- 
ing, and kissing the floor, which is their 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



79 



yergur-bakootune (earth-kissing) ; or, as we 
should say, worship. They believed all they 
had heard about these "destroyers of the 
religion of their fathers." This man was a 
real, specimen of the " infidel Protes." He 
would have great influence over all who 
ventured near him. If even one should 
touch his books, or drink sherbet 1 with him, 
he would become dazed, and an apostate 
from the religion of his ancestors. 

In spite of all these precautions, a few 
sought out the stranger, and among them a 
little tailor, who was from a neighboring 
village. Was it because he had no father or 
mother near to watch over him ? We know 
not ; but we do know that he will bless God 
throughout eternity for what he obtained 
from the despised missionary. He did not 
rush forward, and demand that the mission- 
ary prove his new doctrines. No : he was a 
1 A sweet drink. 



80 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

timid, shrinking youth, and listened in 
silence. When those who had come in left, 
he politely asked for a Testament, and, pay- 
ing for and putting it in his bosom, went out. 

Thus one little seed was sown that was to 
take root in good ground, and bring forth 
much fruit. 

I feel very sure that you will all be inter- 
ested to watch it, and see how God watered 
it, till it burst forth into such a beautiful, 
comely tree, that others sought to rest under 
its shadow. A few years passed; and we 
find this same young tailor, with several 
others, gathered into a class in Harpoot, and 
receiving daily instruction from the mission- 
aries, who are now not mere sojourners, but 
permanently settled here. You will notice 
him at once ; for his face is radiant and 
earnest, and his bearing polite. But you will 
see he is the same diffident young man that 
we met at the room of the missionary. A 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. ■ 81 

lady enters the room. Oriental politeness 
does not require him to rise, unless she is an 
aged lady ; but at once he is on his feet, and 
needs not to be told that Occidental polite- 
ness requires it ; for his politeness is " love 
manifested in a loving manner." In 1859 a 
school for preparing young men for the min- 
istry was opened at Harpoot ; and the 44 little 
tailor," whom we henceforth called Little 
Krekore (Gregory), entered with seventeen 
others. Among this first class were some of 
greater ability as scholars, but none that 
seemed to come so near to the likeness of 
the 44 beloved apostle." He graduated with 
honor, yes, more, with the love of all his 
classmates ; which is as rare a thing in the 
East as in the West. 

He was immediately called to labor in 
Ichmeh, a large village about twenty miles 
east from Harpoot. 

He had spent one of his winter vacations 

6 



82 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



there while in the seminary ; and the people 
were all in love with him. Many who would 
not receive his new doctrines were pleased 
with his kind, polite, Christian bearing. A 
prominent lady was induced by her son, who 
had become a Protestant, to attend one of 
his evening meetings. She was unwilling to 
offend her brother-in-law, who opposed this 
new faith : so she crept along under a high 
wall that separated his shop from the street 
that led to the little Protestant chapel, and 
thus entered for the first time ; but it was 
not to be the last. Like the " little tailor," 
she heard things there that touched her 
heart, if they did not daze her brain ; and 
"I couldn't stay away, 9 ' was her answer 
when asked why she went. The little 
Primer became from that day her daily com- 
panion. It could be found on her table 
when she kneaded the bread, or under the 
cushion near her wheel. She was ever ready 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 83 

now for her lesson when her elder son came 
in from his work, or a younger one came 
from school. 

Soon this whole house, of some fifty souls, 
was won over to " Krekore's side," and was 
an acquisition worth haying. Some of its 
members were to be real pillars in Christ's 
church here; and Hach Hatoon (Lady 
Cross), who was the first to learn to read 
among the women, was to be a real " mother in 
Israel." Soon one of the priests of the village 
became uneasy. Secretly he bought a Bible ; 
and after his children were all sleeping for 
the night, and the outer door bolted, he drew 
it forth from its hiding-place, and read to his 
wife some of its, to them, new truths. " We 
read and wept together," said the wife ; " and 
the more we read, the sweeter it grew, and 
the wider our eyes were opened. We looked 
on our sleeping children, and knew, that, if 
what we had been doing should be known, 



84 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



we should soon be without the bread to fill 
their mouths. We carefully concealed the 
Bible : but night after night we continued our 
reading till we could endure it no longer ; 
and I said to my husband, 6 Emmanuel, we 
will act as the Bible tells us to, even if, hand 
in hand, we ftiust beg our bread from door to 
door.' " They were shunned, persecuted, 
snowballed, and cursed ; but, with " Little 
Krekore " to strengthen them, they were 
firm. The time had now come to unite the 
disciples into a church; and the "beloved 
teacher," as they had hitherto called Kre- 
kore, was to be their pastor. The chapel 
was small ; but it could be enlarged a little 
by removing a partition. 

A joyful crowd gathered, and among them 
the missionary teachers, and the classmates 
of Krekore. He was the first one from the 
Harpoot seminary to be inducted into the 
office of the ministry. His chapel was a 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



85 



very mean building with mud walls ; and his 
house was so small, that one of the mission- 
aries gave it the undignified name of " mouse- 
hole." We never knew him to falter but 
once ; and then the missionaries voted to ask 
his people to take more of his salary upon 
themselves. He felt that they would not. 
His wife was an invalid ; and he lacked almost 
every thing that makes home comfortable. 
The people had not then learned to give, or 
to think of their pastor's wants, as they now 
do. Washing-day found no tubs ; and once 
Krekore, coming in, found his wife in tears. 
Like some other ministers' wives, she did not 
always find it so pleasant to borrow, even 
though everybody was pleased with the 
minister. He said, " Martha, don't weep. 
If God sees it best for us to have these 
things, he will surely send them." Not 
many days after, a brother came from Har- 
poot, bringing just the needed vessels, — a 



86 



GEACE ILLUSTEATED. 



copper boiler and tub. Pastor Krekore met 
this brother in the street, and came back 
with quick steps to his house, saying, " Look 
here, Martha : did I not tell you these would 
come in God's time ? " 

He felt the need of some books ; but how 
should he get them ? They would cost two 
or three months' salary ; and he could ill 
afford so much at once. He thought it all 
over, and then went to a brother, and asked 
if he could lend him the money, and receive 
his pay in small sums. " You can only live 
on your salary now ; and how can you save 
for the books ? Here, take this, and get the 
books you need." The twenty dollars were 
soon in the hand of the missionary, and the 
books ordered. 

He was not content with the office of 
pastor, but, like a faithful shepherd, knew 
all about his sheep. Even the lambs were 
not afraid of him. 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



87 



He taught the women, old and young, to 
read, and opened a weekly meeting for them ; 
for his wife was too much an invalid to help 
him in this. He was so kind to his wife, 
that the women said he must be a good man ; 
and thus he won them over to his Master 
and theirs. And some came to care for 
the invalid wife who would not speak to her 
or answer a question. One woman said, " I 
used to fill my ears with cotton, so that I 
could not hear what you said, I was so afraid 
you would make a Prote of me ; but I 
could not see you suffer, and that kind little 
man wait on you alone." But a better day 
was dawning for him who could always trust 
in God, and wait his time. The old chapel 
was full to overflowing, and the people felt 
that they must " arise and build ; " and, with 
some help from the missionaries, they built 
a large, commodious church, very plain, but, 
when finished, as good as is needed. The 



88 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



" mouse-hole," too, has given place to a nice 
house of five rooms, and a nice court. 

Many things are still needed to make this 
house all that we can wish for this good man 
and wife ; but God will send them all in his 
own good time. The people are independent, 
and hard to manage ; but God raised up this 
patient, polite, loving Christian man for this 
place. The church and community are both 
growing ; and we can see no reason why all 
of the nominally Christian inhabitants of 
Ichmeh should not become Protestants from 
the influence of this young man. Would 
that the lone missionary who sold him the 
Testament could come and see the results 
with his own eyes ! But he has been called 
to a higher service, and perhaps will receive 
the joyful news from Pastor Krekore himself, 
when they meet in some one of the " many 
mansions " in our Father's house. 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



89 



VII. 

SEED BY THE WAYSIDE. 

~^0T spiritually did it thus fall, to be 
devoured by fowls of the air ; but liter- 
ally, and with intent, was it thus cast, and it 
sprung up, and yielded a rich harvest. In 
1860, when the village of Ichmeh was first 
occupied as a missionary out-station, a per- 
son passing through the village on horse- 
back called out to a company of men by the 
roadside, "A new missionary is going to 
preach in the Protestant chapel, go and 
hear him ; " and passed on his way, to learn, 
years subsequently, the influence of that one 
word. One from among the crowd started 
for the chapel, when all broke forth in a 
storm of ridicule against " the man who was 



90 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



turning Prote." "I am not such, and don't 
propose to be," replied he. " But I am free 
to go where I please ; and, as you try to 
prevent me, I shall surely go and hear that 
man preach." 

He went, and continued to go, never 
again going to the -Armenian Church. And 
he not only became a Protestant, but a sin- 
cere Christian, and a pillar in the church. 
Of his three sons, the eldest, Bedros, had 
become a Protestant before his father, and 
borne bitter persecution from him. They 
all became Christians ; and two of them, 
preachers, graduating at Harpoot Theologi- 
cal Seminary. Bedros (" Peter ") did not, 
while in the seminary, excite very brilliant 
hopes for his future. His success as a stu- 
dent was below the average ; and, when he 
began to preach written sermons for criti- 
cism, we came near feeling that we had lost 
our labor, that his efforts would not repay 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 91 

the interest of the money invested in edu- 
cating him. By some who esteemed them- 
selves, and were esteemed by us, hopeful 
candidates, we were blamed for bringing 
reproach on the seminary by retaining such 
men in it. But, while he failed to write 
sermons fit to criticise (the very idea of criti- 
cism seeming to frighten away his clear, con- 
nected thoughts, if he had any), he had two 
redeeming traits, which induced us to be 
patient to the end, and allow him to gradu- 
ate. He had spent his winter vacations in 
Aghansi, a village upon Harpoot plain, in 
which a hopeful spiritual work had opened. 

These two traits — plain, homely common- 
sense, enabling him to adapt himself to all 
classes of persons, and a burning zeal to lead 
men to Christ — had won at once the hearts 
of many of the simple-minded people; and 
we felt that such a man should not, because 
of a little dullness in the class-room, be dis- 



92 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



missed to his saw, hammer, and planes. 
The result justified our decision. Called at 
graduation to go with his wife, a kindred 
spirit, to a hard district of our mission-field, 
he at once joyfully accepted; his only regret 
being, that he could not continue the good 
work begun in Aghansi, where the people, 
who, but a short time before, had in vain 
striven to drive him from their town, now 
even more earnestly desired his coming, 
pledging a part of his support from the first. 

Located in Horhor, an Armenian town in 
the midst of the Koordish mountains, some 
eighty miles north-east from Harpoot, he had 
about him, within a radius of thirty miles, a 
large and almost totally benighted popula- 
tion of Armenians and Koords, among whom, 
for the space of a little less than four 
years, he labored with the zeal of a Paul, 
seeking by all means to win some to Christ. 
And it was a peculiarity of his labors, that, 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



93 



while they did not result in large accessions 
to the nominally Protestant ranks, most who 
were won were won to Christ. His was a 
weeping, as well as earnest, ministry. He 
spent hours in praying and weeping over 
special cases of persons whom he felt that he 
must see in the kingdom. 

One " thorn," for the removal of which he 
besought the Lord more than thrice, were 
two brothers in Horhor, the only nominal 
adherents of the gospel at his arrival there, 
but who he felt, and felt truly, were mere 
Protestants, not Christians. They felt that 
they were safe, and were loud mouthed in 
proclaiming the excellences of the new sys- 
tem ; while, by their worldly-mindedness, 
covetousness, and dislike of Bedros' plain, 
searching preaching, they proclaimed them- 
selves strangers to the power of the gospel. 
Never did we visit him in his mountain 
home, without bringing away cheer from 



94 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



some story of the hopeful conversion of some 
one for whom he had been praying and 
laboring. It was his pleasure to guide "old 
Sarah " of Temran to Christ, after she had 
been intellectually won to the truth. Among 
others in Horhor for whose conversion he 
labored and prayed specially was an aged 
man. At last the poor old man was taken 
suddenly ill, and at midnight sent for Be- 
dros, who, going at once, found him dead, 
with his Testament opened, and marked at the 
text, " Come unto me, all ye that labor and 
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 
His converts caught something of his spirit ; 
and we hear of one of them, who, having 
labored to lead a fellow-traveler to the 
truth, at length knelt and prayed with him 
by the roadside, and at rising threw his arms 
about him, exclaiming, " Oh, I do so much 
wish to see you a Christian ! " 

He won throughout all the district the 



GKACE ILLUSTRATED. 



95 



name of being a saint ; and many who pro- 
fess to hate Protestantism bear witness 
that there was one Christian among them. 
"Bedros," say they, " was a truly good man. 
He was what he professed to be." He was 
specially careful to consecrate a portion of 
his earnings to the Lord's treasury, and from 
his salary of ninety-six dollars per annum, 
he, with a family of seven to support, paid 
tithes for Christian work ; though we may as 
well acknowledge, that, when his tithes fell 
into our hands, we indirectly turned them 
back into the treasury of the giver, as the 
man engaged in the most Christian work we 
could find, and njpst in need of the money. 
Of his four sons, too, he consecrated the 
two brightest to the special service of Christ 
in his ministry, saying, " He shall have the 
best." In like manner, his first-born daugh- 
ter was specially set apart for " Christ to 
use in some way in his ministry." These 



96 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



three, lie felt, must have a good education 
to fit them for their work ; and he trained 
them as if he expected the consecration to 
be accepted. 

And he not only taught, but lived, the 
gospel before them. He always seemed full 
of Christ and his precious work, loving to 
talk of nothing else. He, with more right 
than any one else among our Christian labor- 
ers, might have uttered the sentiments of 
the hymn, — 

4 ' My Jesus shall still be my theme 
While on this earth I stay: 
I'll sing my Jesus' lovely name, 
When all things else decaj. 

When I appear in yonder cloud, 
With all his favored throng, 
Then will I sing more sweet, more loud; 
And Christ shall be my song." 

And such, we doubt not, he is now. The 
Master at length removed the "thorn;" and 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



97 



in Bedros' last letter to us, dated July, 1873, 
he tells his joy in the hopeful conversion 
and happy death of one of the two " Prot- 
estants " of Horhor, and the changed appear- 
ance of the other, and of the happy death 
of one of his sabbath-school scholars. 

Shortly after, he made a missionary visit 
to Hopoos, a hostile town in which we have 
for years vainly tried to locate a preacher. 
Whether he there had unusual excitement 
and hardship, we know not ; but he returned 
with fever upon him, which at once assumed 
the typhus form, and ended his life in a 
week. He at the first told his wife he 
should die, and was happy in the thought of 
going, and assured her that the widow's and 
orphan's God would care for her and the 
little ones ; and to him he commended them. 
There was little time for dying testimony; 
for the dread fever speedily asserted its full 
power ; and happily there was no need of it. 
7 



98 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



His had been an unmistakable life-witness. 
And, while he lay upon his death-bed in 
Horhor, his father was, in like manner, pros- 
trated in Ichmeh, having, like the son, 
though in a different style, borne testimony 
to the power of the gospel. Neither, proba- 
bly, knew here of the other's illness, which 
they first learned from each other's lips in 
that world where " there shall be no more 
death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither 
shall there be any more pain ; for the former 
things are passed away." 

" Who shall weep when the righteous die? 
Who shall mourn when the good depart? 
When the soul of the godly away shall fly, 
Who shall lay the loss to heart? 79 

" He has gone in peace; he has laid him down 
To sleep till the dawn of a brighter day; 
And he shall wake on that holy morn, 
When sorrow and sighing shall flee away." 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



99 



VIII. 

DEACON HAGOP. 

JN the Orient 'tis sometimes hard to tell 
by which of his many names to call a 
man, who, like our deacon Hagop (" Jacob "), 
is an immigrant, has a trade, and happens 
to have seen Jerusalem, and won the title 
of Mahdesi ("seer of the death"), or its 
equivalent Turkish, Haji ("pilgrim "). Thus 
the deacon was known as Mahdesi and Haji 
Hagop, Hagop of Maden, (the place from 
which he emigrated to Harpoot), Saatji 
(" watchmaker ") Hagop, Haji Agha (" pil- 
grim, esquire "), a name given by his friends 
to any one, Armenian or Turk, who has seen 
Jerusalem or Mecca, and lastly, in old age, 
as Deacon Hagop, and Haji Baba (" pilgrim 



100 



GEACE ILLUSTRATED. 



father "), the latter a pet name given him 
by the Protestant community. 

The most singular fact in regard to this 
medley of names is, that none of them was 
the true one, which would have been, in real 
Scripture style, Hagop, son of — his father, 
or grand, or some great-grand sire, according 
to the taste of himself or parents. Here we 
get an inlook into the biblical style of calling 
persons by different names. 

The time of our hero's birth let some 
Yankee " guess " (we forgot to ask him to 
do it in time) ; the place, some town of the 
mountainous district lying between the two 
branches of the Euphrates, to the north of 
Harpoot. 

Those who, half a century ago, were fer- 
ried over into this region of hopeless oppres- 
sion, to remain there, might well recall 
Dante's awful inscription over the entrance 
of his Inferno ; fox, with its pitiless oppres- 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



101 



sion, its cruelties and hopeless miseries, it 
was indeed a 

" Region of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace 
And rest could never dwell, hope never came, 
That comes to all." 

The Mohammedan owners of the soil, 
haughty despisers and fanatical haters of the 
Christian ryots, whose ancestry had been 
conquered and despoiled by the Moslem 
invaders, would neither suffer them to emi- 
grate, nor to enjoy at home any of the rights 
of manhood. The present inhabitants tell 
of the time, not yet wholly past in the dark- 
er corners of the district, when they ima- 
gined they had been born only to be tied up 
by the hands, and beaten at the bidding of 
their oppressors ; and I have myself seen the 
bruised and blackened body of a poor victim 
who had died under blows thus inflicted by 
a fellow Christian, at the bidding of their 
Turkish master, for a slight offense. 



102 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

From this region, while little Hagop was 
yet an infant, his parents, leaving all behind, 
escaped to Maden, then the capital of the 
Harpoot district. His own memory did not 
reach back to those days of fear and flight ; 
but some modern scenes on the same road 
aid us in vividly picturing the anxiety and 
alarm of the fleeing family, especially as they 
neared the ferry, where, to this day, families 
not evidently under powerful protection are 
obliged to pay illegal and exorbitant toll to 
the ferrymen for the privilege of escape 
from this land of bondage. 

The penalty of failure to satisfy this 
rapacity would have been betrayal into the 
hands of their pursuers. Nor, in escaping 
to the capital town, had they escaped from 
scenes of oppression and bloodshed. At 
least, so thought young Jacob, when, day 
after day, he saw the bloody cimeter sever 
the heads of victims innocent or guilty, 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



103 



according as the whim took the pasha and 
his brother rulers, till the work of blood 
reached a climax in a rebellion, and the roll- 
ing of some threescore and ten heads down 
the Euphrates' banks together, — whether 
for real rebellion, or to inspire fear among 
supposed would-be rebels, is uncertain. 
This, however, was the end of Maden's clay 
as capital, the chief vestiges of whose former 
glory are now scores of roofless houses, and 
a still greater number of pretentious tombs 
of big Turks of the olden time, few if any 
of whose posterity remain ; for the central- 
ization of the rebellion in Harpoot, under the 
leadership of a pasha's widow, led the ruling 
pasha hither with his army, where he felt 
compelled to remain, thus making this city — 
or rather the village of Mezereh, three miles 
to the south — the new capital of the dis- 
trict, and leaving Maclen to sink to its 
present obscurity. 



104 GEACE ILLUSTEATED. 

We know not whether any of Hagop's 
relatives survived to accompany him and the 
emigrating multitude who came to gather 
about the rulers, and feed upon government 
crumbs in and about the new capital. Suf- 
fice it to say, none remain ; nor have any 
been seen since the clays of missionary occu- 
pation, beginning about twenty years ago. 
Here Mr. Dunmore, the first missionary, 
found him, a man of some threescore years, 
and soon had the joy of welcoming him to 
the circle of gospel believers, — a joy which, 
to the day of his death, the convert in- 
creased by a steadfast adhesion to the truth, 
and an ever increasing clearness of Christian 
experience. 

And there was room for growth ; for 
though a saint, he was not at first, even if 
he subsequently became, a perfect one. One 
sadly prominent stain, which was only 
washed away by his being providentially 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 105 

made to pass through deep waters of afflic- 
tion in the line of his sin, was that of nig- 
gardliness. Never can the writer forget the 
stingy positiveness with which, though then 
in receipt of an ample salary from the mis- 
sionary treasury, as bookseller, he protested 
his utter inability to pay more than six cents 
a month towards the salary of the pastor 
they were about to settle. But we shall see, 
in due time, how all this was changed, and 
he made meet for that world into which 
no sordid soul shall ever enter. Like most 
men of his class, he was extremely narrow 
minded; and like too many, who, though 
saved by grace, fail to secure a generous, 
broad, intelligent Christian culture, he re- 
mained to the last a man of somewhat narrow 
views. Thank God, we shall all have plenty 
of room, time, and means for the largest 
growth up there, where years ago our old 
pilgrim began effectively his work of large 
development. 



106 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



It hardly need be said, that, like -all the 
rest of his people in those days, he was very 
ignorant. But this lack of book-culture per- 
haps aided, rather than hindered, the devel- 
opment of a native shrewdness which often 
stood him in good stead in time of need. 

Of this he gave a good specimen when 
once a government defaulter, who denied his 
debt, was brought for trial before the court 
of which he was a member. As, in the 
absence of proof to fix the debt upon him, 
the man was about to take the customary 
oath, denying it, Hagop requested that the 
case be left to him. Then — saying to the 
man, " I am about to swear you on this Book 
of God, and if, with your hand on this, you 
tell a lie, neither can the priest pardon you 
in this world, nor will God in the next ; for 
you will be guilty of blasphemy against the 
Holy Ghost, and will be for ever lost " — he 
bade him place his hand on the volume, and 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 107 

said, " Tell me, do you owe this money, or 
not ? " — "I do," said the frightened debtor ; 
and the government got its dues. Would 
that some such new and effective form of 
oath might be discovered for defaulters else- 
where ! Two Oriental notions were firmly 
fixed in his mind, — one, that the wife should 
implicitly obey her husband in all things ; 
and, second, that, on the death of one wife, 
the afflicted husband should make haste to 
honor her memory, and console his grief, by 
taking another. 

Unfortunately, his first wife, who was a 
model of obedience, died, and, to our surprise, 
late one evening, a few days after her death, 
he came in, and in a hasty, excited way, said 
to Mr. Dunmore, " I have found a woman. 
Come at once and marry me." 

But alas ! " Marry in haste, and repent at 
leisure," had an illustration in his case ; for 
the woman so hastily chosen proved to be 



108 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

more of a means of grace than a saint, and 
sorely tried the good old man's patience. 

" Ah ! " said he sadly one day, " why is it 
that all missionaries' wives are angels ? Mine 
is very disobedient. Do come over, and 
exhort her to obey me." But, fearing that 
our Socrates was probably not a faultless 
husband, we declined to exhort his Xantippe ; 
and to the day of his death she helped him 
to grow in the grace of patience. 

Against his continuing in his business as 
bookseller for the missionaries, there were 
two valid objections, — one, his utter inability 
to be convinced of the reasonableness of the 
rule requiring payment in full for books at 
time of sale. This inability was, however, 
removed by another rule overpowering a 
weaker part of his nature, according to which 
he paid for all books sold. He lost about 
two dollars in this way, and then learned, 
that, by trying, he could say " No " to an 
importunate, impecunious purchaser. 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 109 

A second and insurmountable objection 
was the feeling of the new missionaries, that 
bookselling should not be confined to one or 
any limited number of salaried men, nor to 
such " spiritual loafing and smoking shops," 
as observation showed the tendency of Ori- 
' ental bookshops to be, but that all who pro- 
fessed to love the Bible should personally 
and gratuitously aid in selling it. It is the 
resolute carrying-out of this principle which 
has resulted in scattering so many thousands 
of good books in this mission-field, 1 and pro- 
duced outside the very mistaken impression, 
that, in Harpoot, people are so hungry for the 
Word, that Bibles "sell themselves." Sore 

1 The following books have been sold from the Har- 
poot book depository during the past seventeen years : — 



Bibles in different languages .... 4,250 

Portions of Scripture in different languages . 20,600 

Other religious volumes ..... 39,233 

School-books 23,816 

Total ........ 87,899 



110 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

was the affliction of the poor bookseller, as, 
by the force of this new idea, he saw rivals 
rising up to take away his trade ; and when, 
at length, his monthly sales were reduced to 
less than a dollar, and he got the courage to 
protest against the " new notion," which 
threatened to deprive him at once of both 
his bread, and his joy in selling the Book, we, 
too, took courage to say, " You see that the 
work can be more cheaply and effectively 
done in this way," and to propose to him to 
give up his bookshop cushion, and go into 
active service. 

In this he was employed chiefly as a trav- 
eling evangelist, proving himself earnest and 
efficient, going on horseback from place to 
place, till, in 1861, he with his horse fell 
over an embankment, causing such injuries 
as unfitted him for active service ; and as 
failing eyesight prevented his return to his 
early trade of repairing watches, and we 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. Ill 

could not again employ hhn in bookselling, 
he was without visible means of support. 
In vain did we secure a supply of "Yankee 
notions " in Oriental demand, hoping, that, 
by the profits on their sale, the good old man 
might earn his bread. 

" Yankee notions " are one thing in the 
hands of a Yankee, and another and very 
different thing in those of an unpractical Ori- 
ental like Deacon Hagop. The result was, that 
what " notions " he didn't eat were sold at 
cost ; and selling his house, and removing to 
a cheaper one, he decided to " wait upon the 
Lord." This he did with the simple, clinging 
faith of a little child. In vain did his old 
friends gather about him, saying, " See how 
these missionaries treat you in your old age ! 
Come back to the Armenian Church, and we 
will support you." 

His uniform reply was, " I have put my 
trust in the Lord ; and, though he slay me, I 



112 



GBACE ILLUSTRATED. 



will continue to trust in him. But I do not 
believe he will forsake me." We all com- 
mended his case to Him who inspired the 
utterance, " I have been young, and now am 
old, yet have I not seen the righteous for- 
saken, nor his seed begging bread." And 
who can say that the result was not a direct 
and striking answer to prayer ? 

A letter by Mr. Barnum, giving some facts 
of the case, found its way to an English 
magazine, a copy of which, in like manner, 
" found its way " into the hands of an Eng- 
lish-speaking Dutchman on the continent of 
Europe, whose sympathies were so moved, 
that he at once collected quite a sum of 
money, a bank-check for which he inclosed 
to Mr. Barnum, addressing the letter to him 
at Harpoot. On reaching Turkey, its English 
direction was, of course, useless ; and the post- 
masters sent it hither and thither in search 
of a foreign claimant. The annual meeting 



GKACE ILLUSTRATED. 113 

of the Mission to Eastern Turkey, with 
which Harpoot is connected, being in session 
in Bitlis, distant from Harpoot about ten 
days direct, but about a month by post (!) 
Mr. Barnum had just presented the case of 
Hagop for consultation, when the post 
arrived with the letter and money in search 
of the long-sought claimant. One sentence 
of its quaint English was, " If the Lord 
Jesus thinks well of it, I desire thus to sup- 
port Hagop as long as he shall live." We 
feared to tell the aged pilgrim this promise, 
lest he should be overmuch tempted to put 
his trust in man. He knew that He in whom 
he trusted sent him some eight dollars month 
by month ; and he believed that he would do 
it to the last. He loved his human bene- 
factor, and wrote him letters, which we 
translated and forwarded ; and the promise 
to support him, if Jesus thought well of it, 
was made good. Of the last remittance, only 



114 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

enough was left to pay the expense of his 
funeral, and place a plain granite stone to 
mark his grave. Much to our disappoint- 
ment, though we subsequently repeatedly 
wrote to our Dutch friend, no response has 
come. 

It was during these years of patient wait- 
ing and trusting, that the fruits of grace 
abounded, to the continually increasing ex- 
clusion of nature's weeds. He who, in the 
time of prosperity, had grudgingly pledged 
six cents a month for Christ's cause, now, in 
sickness and poverty, when living by faith, 
gladly, and unsolicited, gave many times the 
amount. 

Then he seemed to feel what before he 
had only said, that he and all his belonged 
to Christ ; and his niggardliness was all 
gone. In his soul, expanded, illumined, 
and purified by divine grace, it could find 
no corner dark and foul enough to hide its 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 115 



execrable shape. The nearer he felt the end 
of his earthly labors to be, the dearer to him 
were those for whom he had labored. 

Not long before his last illness, feeling 
that he had strength for such a journey, if 
taken slowly, he said, " I must go again, and 
visit my brethren in every city where I have 
preached the word of the Lord, and see how 
they do." Extending his tour beyond the 
bounds of our own field, he visited Bitlis 
and Erzroom, confirming the brethren, 
being received by all with that respect and 
affection which his venerable appearance, 
and Saint-John-like Christian character and 
exhortations, were fitted to secure. Return- 
ing, he felt that his earthly service was 
nearly ended, and not long afterwards 
retired to his sick-room, to wait, a patient 
sufferer, for the hour of his release. 

u The chamber where the good man meets his fate 
Is privileged above the common walks of life; " 

and so pre-eminently was his. 



116 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



Among this people, all means, honest and 
dishonest, are resorted to, to conceal from a 
dying man the fact of death's approach, lest 
his terror and distress hasten the hour of his 
departure. And such is the popular dread 
of all of death's surroundings, that the body 
of one who dies too late in the day for the 
usual hurried burial must be at least hastily 
wrapped in the customary shroud, and hur- 
ried off to the church, to be ready for the 
early morning burial. But here was one, 
who, to all his old companions (who came in 
numbers to see him), not only predicted his 
speedy departure, but assured them that he 
was joyful in the thought of going. In the 
intervals between his asthmatic sufferings, 
he tried to point them to Him whose grace 
had thus removed the fear and dread of 
death, and exhorted them to secure him as a 
friend for their own coming time of need. 

Besides himself, but one in that white- 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



117 



bearded company — " the aged auctioneer" 
— had been united with the little company 
of gospel believers ; and those death-bed 
exhortations, even, seemed to make but 
little permanent impression. Some thought 
him beside himself; others listened in incred- 
ulous amazement ; while others felt and 
wept, and went away, and forgot it all. 
They came, indeed, as he had requested, and 
sat around his coffin on his burial day, and 
wept again, as we sung the hymn he had 
selected, — 

' 1 Come sing to me of heaven 
When I'm about to die: 
Sing songs of holy ecstasy, 
To waft my soul on high. 
There'll be no sorrow there, 
There'll be no sorrow there: 
In heaven above, where all is love, 
There'll be no sorrow there! " 



But to this hour, those yet alive, whose tears 



118 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

then fell fastest, are apparently most stony- 
hearted, and least likely to follow him up 
the shining way. So true it is, that for the 
Ethiopian to change his skin, and the leop- 
ard his spots, is impossible with men, possi- 
ble only to Him whose word can raise the 
dead, and who saves from the company of 
white-haired rebels only enough to illustrate 
and verify the reality and power of his 
almighty grace. 

Such was the nature of his disease as to 
compel him to spend day and night in a sit- 
ting posture, and that often in the keenest 
torture. After his paroxysms of distress, he 
would point up, and say, " There is no 
coughing up there ; no coughing up there ! " 
" I am going to a wedding, to the marriage- 
supper of the Lamb," were the last words 
the writer heard him utter ; and soon he did 
join the company of the redeemed, continu- 
ing to the last patient, peaceful, full of joy. 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



119 



A weeping company bore his remains to 
tile grave which he had dug beside that of 
his wife, and placed over it the gray granite 
block he had prepared to mark the spot. 

The Word was read, a hymn sung, and 
prayer made, and we left him to wait the 
resurrection morn, feeling, as we came away, 
that the Master scatters such life and death 
scenes here and there along our pathway, to 
prevent our weak faith from failing in the 
hard, ungrateful work we have to do. It 
was said above, that the good man loved his 
Dutch benefactor. To some, this statement 
may seem so necessarily true as to be un- 
necessary, and still more uncalled for the 
statement, that, to the last, he was grateful 
to those who had made him acquainted 
with the gospel ; not merely to that always 
admired benefactor, " the Board," around 
which gathers the halo of ethereal, distant 
beneficence, but also to its seen, human rep* 



120 



GEACE ILLUSTRATED. 



resentatives, the missionaries, with their 
many real, and more imagined, imperfec- 
tions. 

We devoutly hope that the experience of 
missionaries to real heathen may be different 
from that of most who labor for " nominal 
Christians ; " but that those who, if hungry, 
would be grateful to any passer-by who 
should give them a piece of bread, or a 
bowl of soup, are frequently increasingly 
ungrateful to those who have brought them 
the bread and the water of life, is a fact 
explainable by no philosophy but that of 
the perverse inconsistency of poor human 
nature. Are we to suppose that missiona- 
ries, instead of remaining to labor for the 
permanent planting of Christian institutions, 
should simply proclaim the gospel, and pass 
along, not waiting for the ingratitude and 
abuse of those apparently most blessed (!) 
by it ? It would sometimes seem that grati- 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED . 121 

tude, called by some one a " plant of slow 
growth," seldom finds room and soil for 
growing in the newly enlightened adult 
soul in this world. Be that as it may, the 
heart of the missionary in this land is oftener 
saddened by reproachful demands for un- 
received benefits than cheered by grateful 
acknowledgment of those bestowed. And 
those proposing to enter upon the work 
may as well be forewarned. But let them, 
also, be fore-armed by the assurance that here 
and there some life or death scene will be 
so radiant with the luster of divine grace 
as to cause to be forgotten all the gloom 
and sadness which follow even the most 
trying exhibitions of human imperfection 
and sin. 

In the missionary scale, the enjoyment 
of one growing, grateful saint, outweighs 
the trial of a score of complaining ones; 
and the Master, if we trust his promise, 



122 



GBACE ILLUSTRATED. 



will take care, that, in addition to his own 
blessed presence, the supply of visible, 
tangible cheer, shall abound to those who 
need it — as who of us does not at times ? 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 123 



IX. 

THE BROKEN VOW. 

QOME twelve years ago, a copy of the 
New Testament, in the modern tongue, 
found its way into the hands of a tailor, a 
" reader " in one of the Armenian churches 
in Harpoot, and stirred within him new and 
strange thoughts, — questionings concerning 
his own religious experience and that of 
those about him. These questions he used 
to commit to writing for further thought 
and examination ; and once, when a mission- 
ary called at his home, the question-paper 
was brought out to aid in seeking the light 
he needed. Finding two other young men, 
who, with him, felt an interest in studying 
the new book, they three became especially 



124 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



earnest in the worship of their church, 
being desirous even of having the people 
leave, and close the church-doors upon them, 
that they might have longer space for united 
worship. 

These companions both died ; one appar- 
ently being prepared for death, leaving the 
young tailor still feeling his way toward 
full gospel light and liberty. 

A Protestant meeting being opened in 
his ward of the city, he, after many ques- 
tionings, concluded to go for once. To his 
surprise, he found that these innovators 
talked well and truly, raising just the ques- 
tions which had been troubling him, and 
professing to answer them. He was so 
troubled by this, and alarmed, lest they 
should steal his affections from his own 
church, that he went, and, kneeling before 
the altar, made a solemn vow never to sepa- 
rate from her communion. Having thus 



GEACE ILLUSTRATED . 



125 



fortified his resolutions, and made his posi- 
tion safe from Protestant attack, he con- 
tinued to attend their meetings, where, to 
his dismay, he found that even his oath- 
bound resolutions were like the vow of 
darkness to withstand mid-day light, or of 
a lump of ice to resist the noonday sun. He 
saw, that, to hold to his purpose, he must 
escape from the light and heat which ra- 
diated from the open Bible on the Protes- 
tant pulpit. 

Again he knelt before the altar with the 
feeling, " I must be on one side or the other. 
Which shall it be? Did I do right in 
making that vow ? and is it binding upon 
me ? " There, alone with his God, he settled 
the question in the negative. Not only was 
the vow <not binding upon his conscience, 
but he had done wrong in making it. From 
that hour, he was a recognized adherent of 
the evangelical party, and, with his family, 
was always present at the meetings. 



126 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

And not only so much, but saying to him- 
self, " These services cost something, and 
I should pay my part towards them," he 
sought out the treasurer, and entered his 
name among the subscribers for the pastor's 
salary. With such principles, and such 
a beginning, it is not strange that he was 
speedily known as a leading member of the 
church, nor that, when a successor was 
needed for " Deacon Hagop," hands were 
laid upon the head of Kineose, and that he 
has been, and still is, one of the chief pillars 
of the church. 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 127 



X. 



ONE OF GOD'S HIDDEN ONES. 



entered the female seminary, we 



can not say definitely at what age ; 
though, when asked how old she was, she 
replied, " Sixty." Her teacher laughed, and 
told her that was impossible. " Well," said 

J- , "perhaps I am fifty." As she only 

guessed at her age, we may be allowed to 
do the same ; and probably a more correct 
estimate would be, that forty summers had 
passed over her head. She is a woman of 
gentle spirit, kind in feeling and manner. 

She did not know her letters when she 
entered school ; and to learn to read at her 
age seemed a most formidable undertaking. 



BY MISS HATTIE SEYMOUR. 




128 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



She began aip, pen, kim (a, b, c) with a 
good will ; but as day after day passed, and, 
notwithstanding her hard work over her 
lessons, she did not make much progress, she 
said to her teacher, " I can never learn to 
read. My mind has never been worked, and 
my brain is thick. I study away at the first 
letter till I think I have learned it, and then 
try the second; but, when I turn back to 
the first, I have forgotten its name." 

As day after day, sad and discouraged, 
she repeated her conviction to her teacher, 
that she should never learn to read, she was 
advised to try this plan, — never to open her 
book to study, without first silently lifting 
her heart in prayer, that her mind might be 
quickened, and that God would send down 
special grace to help her remember. The 
answer to her prayers seemed almost a 
miracle. 'Tis faith that 

u Laughs at impossibilities, 
And cries, ' It shall be done.' " 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 129 



And simple faith and prayer brought a 

daily supply of strength to poor J , 

which carried her triumphantly through 
the primer her first year in school. It was 
pleasant to see her happy face as she entered 
the second year, bearing her New Testament 
reverently in her hands. Her reading was 
not now a mere lesson to her. She sat one 
day in the class with several other women, 
one of whom read Matthew's account of our 
Lord's crucifixion. There was some familiar 
talk about the "old, old story;" and then 

J was called, in her turn, to read. She 

rose slowly, and, with averted face, took 
her seat by her teacher, but, instead of read- 
ing, bowed her face in her hands, and was 
evidently trying to suppress her sobs. 
" Why, J ," her teacher asked in sur- 
prise, " what is the matter ? " — " I can 
never hear that story of Christ's death," 
she said, " without crying." Happy J ! 

9 



130 GRACE ILLUSTRATED* 



Well miglit one, who, from a child, had 
known the Holy Scriptures, envy you the 
freshness and tenderness of your feelings, 
and feel that the teacher should sit at the 
pupil's feet, and learn of him. 

The day of fasting and prayer, just after 

the opening of J 's second year in school, 

was one of tender interest. Those present 
in the morning prayer-meeting will not soon 
forget J 's face, working with deep emo- 
tion, as she said with tremulous voice, "I 
want you all to pray for me. I am weak ; I 
don't know any thing ; I am very bad ; but 
I want to be a Christian." Later in the day, 
her deep contrition had another element 
mingled with it ; and the burden of her heart 
and words seemed to be, — 

" I'm a poor sinner, and nothing at all; 
But Jesus Christ is my all in all." 

And afterwards, whenever inquiry was 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



131 



made as to whether she still loved and 
trusted Christ, she answered with the 
simplicity of a child, that she was sure she 
did. " And why are you so sure ? " she was 
once asked. " Because," she said, laying her 
hand upon her heart, " I feel such a warmth 
here whenever I think of him." " Blessed 
are the meek and single-hearted," says 
Thomas A Kempis ; " for they shall possess 
the abundance of peace." 



132 GEACE ILLUSTE ATED • 



XI. 

THE LITTLE HUMPBACK. 

J^EAR the city of Arabkir, nestled among 
the Anti-Taurus Mountains, is the 
wretched little village of Sh£pik. Poverty 
seems written over every door ; but this is 
the place where blind John Concordance 
first preached his " Tithe Sermon," which so 
aroused the poor, simple-minded Protestants 
of the village, that each male with willing 
heart consecrated the tenth of all his gains 
to the Lord's service. The influence of this 
sermon could not be shut up here ; but the 
blind preacher was invited to preach it in 
other places, and many were convinced by 
his strong arguments that they had been 
robbing the Master's treasury. 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 133 

More than twenty years before this revival 
of giving the "Lord's tenth" in Shepik, a 
Little girl was born in one of these humble 
homes. Her parents gave her the beautiful 
name, Kohar ( u Jewel "). I know not why 
they gave her this name ; for when she grew 
up she was neither handsome in features, nor 
comely in form, for she was humpbacked. 
This deformity may have been caused by 
some injury in her childhood ; but the par- 
ticulars we know not. We first hear of 
Kohar as the " bright little humpback," 
who had run away from her Shepik home to 
Arabkir, to see the missionaries ; or, rather, 
had tried to ck> so. 

She heard in her village that some " In- 
glese " had come to Arabkir, a city only six 
miles away. 

The neighbors came in to talk about 
these men with a " new religion," who " kept 
no fasts," and never " kissed the earth" in 



134 



GEACE ILLUSTRATED. 



their worshiping. The priests shook their 
heads, and warned their flocks to beware of 
these " deceivers coming in these last days," 
these " wolves in sheep's clothing." Each 
new-comer from the city had some new 
thing to tell about the Protestants. " These 
people bring the Bible, and urge old and 
young to read it, even the women. They 
open schools, too, for both boys and girls. 
They give much honor to their wives, 
walking with them in the streets, and per- 
mitting them to enter a house first." 

Little Kohar was greatly delighted with 
all these things ; and she believed that such 
people could not be as wicked as her priest 
thought them to be. She was greatly 
troubled. Her priest was God's chosen ser- 
vant. She had been baptized by him. He 
could read the holy Bible, and the books of 
the fathers ; and he said these Protes were 
" bad, wicked men." But the others read 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 135 



the Bible too; and they have schools, and 
try to teach people to read the Bible for 
themselves. 

The jewel covered up in the rubbish 
began to shine a little. This little girl 
longed for more knowledge. 44 Why should 
not she read the Bible for herself, and see 
what was written in that holy book sent 
down from God? These foreign women 
could read, and God had not struck them 
dead for their impiety ; but they were 
trying to teach other women to read also." 
Her thirst for knowledge overcame all her 
fears ; and she resolved to visit these stran- 
gers, and see for herself what kind of people 
they were. 

Poor child! What can she do? She is 
only a girl, and can not go so far alone. Her 
parents would not consent to* let her go, 
even if some one would take her to these 
people. She had never been taught to pray 



136 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



to J esus to help her, and show her the right 
way ; and would the " Blessed Virgin " 
help, when she wished to go to the very- 
people who said it was wrong to pray to 
Mary ? The desire filled her Avhole soul ; 
and she forgot all her fears, forgot her weak 
back, and started to go alone to Arabkir. 
Her mother soon learned that she had run 
away, and hastened to the priest's house, 
and begged him to help her rescue her child, 
They went in pursuit, and soon overtook 
the poor girl, and led her back by her hair, 
that hung in long braids upon her shoulders. 
The missionary at Arabkir, hearing of this, 
visited Shepik, and sought out Kohar. He 
was pleased with her earnestness, and felt 
that God was calling her to a higher service 
than the work in her poor village ; but he 
told her she must not disobey her parents, 
and run away. " The Bible tells us to obey 
our parents. You must pray to the God of 



KOHAR, (Little Humpback.) 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



137 



this holy Bible, Kohar; and he will hear 
you, and open a way for you to come to the 
school at Arabkir, where you can learn to 
read the Bible for yourself." 

I have no doubt that she daily prayed for 
this one great desire of her heart ; and God 
in heaven heard the little humpback's 
prayer ; for the work in Arabkir prospered. 
Many were those who sought the new light, 
and were themselves enlightened, and went 
out to seek others, that they, too, might come 
and see, and believe for themselves. This 
light had entered the city ; and, even though 
many had risen up against it, it could not 
be concealed under a bushel. The shining 
reached even to the mountain village, and 
was the topic of conversation in every house. 
Some, even of the wiser ones, bought the 
condemned Book, the "Prote Testament," 
and began to read for themselves about 
this " new faith." Then they told their 



138 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

neighbors, and compared this new book with, 
the ancient one from which their priests 
read. " Why, brethren, these are just the 
same words; only one is in our ancient 
tongue, and the other in the modern. 
These people are right, and our priests are 
wrong. They are ignorant, and have kept 
us so." A desire for knowledge was awak- 
ened; but many shuddered at these new 
doctrines, and kept a more watchful lookout 
for their beloved ones. 

The women especially felt that the religion 
that forbade them to call on the Holy Virgin 
was not to be tolerated. The Turk was bad 
enough ; but these New Religionists were 
much more dangerous, especially to their 
children. 

"I would rather my child should be a 
Turk than one of those Protes," was the 
language often heard from those calling 
themselves Christians. 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



139 



The priest himself began to think about 
these strange doctrines, and read more care- 
fully his smoky Bible, and to think less of 
his book of church forms and rules. The 
sabbath was discussed ; and many began to 
say, "Surely the sabbath is holier than 
saints' days ; but we profane God's day, while 
we carefully keep a great many saints' days." 

Kohar's father and uncles began to talk 
of these things in the long winter evenings, 
when the neighbors would come in and tell 
of some new development in the neighboring 
city. The mother, too, listened, and seemed 
to be more softened towards her little girl, 
who would be drinking in all she heard, 
believing that God would soon send the 
answer to her earnest prayers, as the mis- 
sionary had assured her he would. 

These discussions were the wedge that 
God prepared to pry open the door to let his 
jewel come forth to the light of perfect day. 



140 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

Kohar became a better child ; and God was 
using her as a little preacher in her home, 
and thus softening her parents' hearts. They 
looked upon her crooked back, and pitied 
her ; for she would never be married, and she 
could not work in the field, and thus aid her 
father. What can a village woman do, if 
too weak to labor with her husband, father, 
and brothers in the fields ? The father and 
brothers would say, " Surely the housework 
is of very little account." 

"How would it do to let those Inglese 
have Kohar ? " was the thought that troubled 
father and mother. " Perhaps they, too, are 
Christians, and then our child will not be 
lost. By and by she will be only a burden 
to us ; but, if we let her go to school, she 
may be able to help herself in some way. 
At any rate, they will care for her." It was 
a joyful day when she entered a Protes- 
tant family in Arabkir, and began to attend 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 141 



school. She made such progress, that, ere 
long, she was able to help the missionary's 
wife in the school, and finally became the 
teacher of the girls' school. She loved to 
study ; and, when she heard that a seminary 
for girls was opened at Harpoot, she became 
uneasy even in her beloved work of teaching. 

She was unwilling to sadden those who 
had done so much for her to fit her for this 
position ; for she saw no one to take her place 
in the school. The desire grew, and became 
so strong, that she looked sad. The kind 
missionaries said, " Kohar, you are very much 
needed here ; but in the spring you may go to 
Harpoot." The happy girl felt that God had 
answered her prayer a second time ; and her 
heart was filled with joy and thanksgiving, 
and her face radiant with smiles. She was 
an earnest student, and, after her graduation, 
was selected as assistant in the seminary, 
where, for several years, she gave great satis- 



142 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

faction to the missionary teachers, and was 
beloved by all the girls, her Christian influ- 
ence oyer whom filled the hearts of her 
superiors with joy, and they felt that their 
dear pupils were safe while they had such 
a constant example of earnest piety and 
patience to look up to. Kohar was at the 
head of the school-family; and seldom did 
her management need any interference, while 
she was ready to listen to any advice given 
her. During the long winter vacations, 
when the seminary was closed, and the girls 
sent home to teach, or aid their parents in the 
family, Kohar made long tours among the 
villages, sometimes spending several weeks - 
in one place, teaching the women, holding 
prayer-meetings, and singing sweet songs, 
which the women often speak of as one of 
their pleasant recollections of her visits. 

In this way she encouraged both the 
preachers and their wives, besides winning 
new sisters to the gospel. 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 143 



She did not forget her native village nor 
her father, mother, and brothers. When 
visiting and talking, her fingers were busy- 
making collars or edging, which she sold, 
and sent the avails to help support the pastor 
of Shepik ; for the light had not only- 
entered her home, and enlightened her father 
and mother, and other members of the family, 
but now a church was formed ; and the priest 
— who for years had burnt incense before the 
pictures of saints, and preached fast days 
and saints' days, — stood up to preach not the 
intercession of Mary, but f that of Jesus the 
Son of man, as the only advocate between 
God and fallen man. 

She remembered her parents in their 
poverty also, and often sent them something 
from her own earnings. Nor did she forget 
the foreign mission-work. Well do I re- 
member the time when she gave five dollars 
to this work, while she had not clothing suit- 



144 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

able for the cold winter before her. While 
seeking others' comfort, she forgot her own ; 
and often her own health would have suffered 
from her unselfishness, had not some one 
cared for her. But He who cares even for 
the hungry ravens, and notes the sparrow's 
fall, put it into kind hearts to supply the 
warm garments needed for her frail body 
when she went out among the villages in 
midwinter. Her gratitude to the unseen 
givers, often far off in a (to her) strange land, 
was earnest and beautiful. It touched her 
tender heart to think that strangers should 
care for her, because they, too, loved the same 
J esus she did ; and she often spoke of the 
joy she should have in seeing these dear 
ones, and praising this same Jesus with them 
in heaven. During one of her vacations, she 
went to the city of Egin, where we had a 
preacher and his wife, but where the people 
looked with scorn upon Protestants. The 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED . 145 

women were superior to those of any other 
place in our mission-field, very neat and tidy 
in their dress and houses, but proud, and far 
away from the simple teachings of Jesus of 
Nazareth. She conversed with those who 
would lend a listening ear out of mere polite- 
ness. But soon some were ready to welcome 
her to their houses, though others hooted 
after her in the streets, crying out " Prote," 
even throwing stones at her. When the 
time came for her to return to Harpoot, she 
'had won several women, who not only came 
to listen to her sweet words about J esus, but 
were busy over their primer, learning to read, 
that they for themselves might study the 
sweet words of the Saviour about whom they 
had heard from Kohar. Among these pupils 
were women with white heads, patiently 
learning their a, 5, e's. " You must not 
leave us," was the pleading cry of these 
women. "Who will care for us, if you 
10 



146 GRACE ILLUSTRATED* 

go?" She urged that her presence was 
needed in the school ; but they replied, "The 
missionaries can find some one else. Do not 
leave us now ! " 

She staid with them ; but they were just 
as unwilling that she should leave them 
when the next spring came, and the next ; 
and she has seen the work extend, till 
quite a strong Protestant community has 
grown up. Twenty-three persons, among 
them nine women, have joined a neighboring 
church, and are looking forward to the time * 
when they can ordain their preacher, and 
become a separate church. Kohar has now a 
school of sixty pupils, and calls earnestly for 
an assistant ; so that she may devote her time 
to those who are yet too proud to acknowl- 
edge that they need any good thing. Who 
of us could have foretold the success that 
has followed this poor little deformed girl, 
when we first saw her in her humble home 
among the mountains? 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 147 



God has his jewels scattered all over the 
world ; and he will cause them to shine when 
he has need of their light. He will call 
upon us to help him polish and refine them, 
if we are waiting to help him ; and surely 
the reward will be glorious. 

14 Sow in the morn thy seed ; 
At eve hold not thine hand ; 
To doubt and fear give thou no heed ; 
Broadcast it o'er the land! 

Thou canst not toil in vain : 

Cold, heat, and moist and dry 
Shall foster and mature the grain 

For garners in the sky." 



148 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED: 



XII. 

KOORDISH AMY. 

QOME fifty miles north from Harpoot, the 
horizon is skirted by the towering range 
of the Anti-Taurus Mountains, which, 
stretching to the east, to Persia and the 
homes of the mountain Nestorians, and 
south-east, through Koordistan Proper, 
toward the Persian Gulf, are the home of 
untold numbers of Koordish tribes, whose 
ancestry, the Carduchi, held these same 
fastnesses nearly twenty-three hundred years 
ago, and near Redwan, one of the Koordish 
mission-stations of our native churches, dis- 
puted with Xenophon and his retreating 
"ten thousand" the passage through their 
land. Theories are various, curious, and 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



149 



some of them wild, in regard to the origin 
of this interesting people and their two 
languages, — the Koormanji and the Zaza 
Koordish. Suppose we "guess" that Nim- 
rod, the " mighty hunter before the Lord," 
had two sons, who, with their companions, 
betook themselves to the mountains in search 
of game, and concluded to stay there, and 
replenish and hold their hunting-park. This 
supposition gives the old sportsman no mean 
posterity, since among the Koords are found 
some of the finest specimens of physical 
manhood in all the Orient. 

If, however, commentators insist on a 
universal deluge, and the drowning out of 
all the children of Adam except those 
"eight souls," not even allowing Father 
Noah a few servants in the ark, let them 
provide progenitors for our Koords from 
among those eight, while we turn to our 
story. 



150 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

About a score of years ago, in one of the 
districts near the city of Chemishgezek, one 
of this people, Murto by name, wedded a 
beautiful maiden named Bayzie. And, what 
was even more satisfactory than wedding a 
beauty (a thing which can not happen among 
the harem-owning Turks, with ugly black 
veils concealing their women's faces when 
abroad, nor even among the less exclusive 
Armenians), he, and all about him, knew 
that she was beautiful ; for the Koords, while 
guarding with vindictive jealousy the virtue 
of their women, allow them to go and come 
with unveiled faces, a thing unknown among 
those about them. 

And so it came to pass, that, when Murto 
and Bayzie had become the happy parents 
of two little girls, — Amy and Hedjie, — a 
wealthier and mightier Koord made a mid- 
night raid upon their home, and carried off 
the beautiful mother. 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



151 



Whether Bayzie was more or less happy 
in her new home, or made any effort to 
return to her husband, we learn not ; but he 
soon fled to Chemishgezek, where, at his 
death not long after, he left his two little 
orphans, servants in a wealthy Armenian 
family. 1 

The gospel light, and with it the idea of 
educating and elevating woman, which en- 
tered this home of " the Seven Young Con- 
fessors," so far penetrated this family, that 
Amy, the elder of the two girls, learned to 
read, and obtained a two-cent copy of the 
Gospel of Matthew. Our first knowledge 
of her was when (in 1869) a request came 
from Chemishgezek, that we receive " a poor 
girl " to the Harpoot Female Seminary. 

Our reply was in the usual form : " If she 

l By a misapprehension, it was stated in the Harpoot 
News, that " the father died, and the mother remarried 
which is true in reversed order of time. 



152 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

is a suitable person, and any one is responsi- 
ble for her clothes, books, and traveling ex- 
penses, we will receive her," adding, "but 
our seminary is not an alms-house." The 
reply soon came, "She is a poor Koordish 
girl, for whom no one cares ; and those with 
whom she lives are so far from wishing to 
send her, that, should she go to school, they 
would even deprive her of all her best 
clothes." 

Our reply, " Such a girl will not do for us 
to educate," put an end to the matter, till, 
some months later, Mr. H. N. Bar num. and 
myself visited Chemishgezek ; and Amy 
appeared before us to plead her own cause. 

She seemed thoroughly possessed with the 
idea, that come she must to the seminary, 
— that paradise of girls in need of Christian 
education. 

No Armenian girl of her age, unless edu- 
cated in a Protestant school, would have 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 153 

ventured to say a word to us, or even to 
reply to a question ; but this poor Koerdish 
girl, with her inborn nature energized by 
earnestness of desire, stood and pleaded her 
cause with a boldness and perseverance 
which interested and surprised us. 

But to all her pleadings we had a ready 
reply, till she exclaimed, " Missionaries, if 
Jesus were now on earth, and a poor girl 
like me wished to come to him, and learn 
about his salvation, don't you think he 
would receive her?" To this question, 
enforced by her earnest tones, and pleading 
face, we could not find it in our hearts to 
give the cold, logical reply, " Oh ! you can 
learn about Jesus here, without coming to 
the seminary;" for she at least felt, that, 
surrounded as she was by merely nomina] 
Christians, she could not learn his will. 
But, earnest and sincere as she appeared, we 
still had a lingering fear of .being deceived 



, 154 GRACE ILLUSTRATED, 

in this our first experience with a Koordish 
candidate : so we inquired of all the " Prot- 
estant brethren," whether, so far as they 
knew, she was truthful, industrious, and 
faithful, and, in their opinion, sincere in her 
request, or whether she might wish to go to 
the seminary from mere curiosity, or in hope 
of living an easier life. When all gave 
decided testimony in her favor, we said, 
" We will run the risk, and make this one 
experiment. Let her come." Take her 
ourselves we could not. 

But, surrounded as she was by those 
hostile to us and the evangelical faith, mere 
letting would not bring her. And the diffi- 
culty increased greatly, when word went 
forth among the many Koords in the city, 
" The 'hat-wearers ' are about to carry off one 
of the tribe, and make her a Christian." So 
the poor orphan suddenly had plenty of 
friends, who, with loaded guns, let it be 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



155 



known that any one would take her away at 
the peril of his life ; and, as Koordish guns 
have laid many a poor Armenian low in 
those wild regions, it was not surprising that 
sudden fear and trembling took possession 
of the Protestants who had secured her in- 
terviews with the missionaries. But it waa 
surprising to see how suddenly the introduc- 
tion of this new alkaline element of fear 
turned all their beautiful coloring to a som- 
ber blue. Accustomed as we are to the 
timidity and fickleness of this land, we were 
amazed to see, that, all at once, Amy, the 
paragon of excellence, had become a " lazy 
shirk, seeking to escape life's burdens by 
hiding herself in a seminary, under pretense 
of learning about Jesus." 

When all these improvised arguments had 
been rebutted by recalling words just before 
uttered by the same men, one of them, a 
very zealous Protestant, but rather poor 



156 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



Christian, heedlessly let the truth out, in- 
quiring in a distressful tone, " Is that Koord- 
ish girl of so much importance, that, for her 
sake, you are willing to send our souls into 
eternity unprepared ? Shall we be lost, that 
she may be saved ? " — " Not at all," we re- 
plied ; " but, having once conscientiously 
taken a position, no fear of Koordish guns 
can turn us from it. And perhaps the Mas- 
ter is taking this way to prepare you, sir, for 
heaven. So long as you feel that the hour 
of death is uncertain, there is little hope of 
your being any thing more than a Protes- 
tant. Perhaps a look down the muzzle of a 
gun is just the thing needed to wake you up 
to prepare to meet God. So, then, we still 
say, ' Let her come.' " 

It remained, then, to decide how the thing 
should be done. To take her along our- 
selves would raise a mob, and perhaps 
hinder her leaving, besides lifting our pro- 



GEACE ILLUSTRATED. 157 

tegee up with pride and self-conceit at the 
thought of being of so much consequence. 
During the sabbath services, we had been 
struck by the earnest looks of a man some 
fifty years old, to whom the Word seemed 
to be like cold water to a thirsty soul. 

During all the discussion about Amy, he 
had sat a quiet, interested listener ; but now, 
when the time for words had passed, and 
that for deeds had come, he rose and came 
forward, saying, " Missionaries, do you intend 
to let this girl come to the seminary?" On 
our replying in the affirmative, he, with a 
resolute, martyr look, added, "Brethren, I 
can not conscientiously allow her to be pre- 
vented from going. Tell all the Koorcls 
that I did it. I will take her to Harpoot. 
Let them kill me, if any one." 

But we much preferred that nobody die, 
and that one member of the little com- 
munity should run away. He was a man 



158 GEACE ILLUSTRATED. 

equally famous for enduring persecution, and 
notorious for lazy loafing, — one who made it 
a matter of principle to sponge his living 
out of Protestant preachers, and in various 
ways bring reproach on the Protestant 
name. 

Now, thought we, is the time to feed two 
birds with one grain of wheat, by getting 
Amy to Harpoot, and Garabed so out of this 
city, that he will never dare to come back. 
So we whispered in his ear, " You bring 
her," and left. 

But he was as shrewd as lazy, and at once 
posted off to the chief of Amy's tribe, the 
famous Ali Gako of Mr. Dunmore's day, 1 
and obtained a paper authorizing him to 
take her to Harpoot to be educated by the 
missionaries. 

With this to insure his own safety, he 

1 See Missionary Herald for 1855, pp. 55, 340; for 1857, 
pp. 219, 346; and, for 1858, p. 113. 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



159 



mounted her on a mule, and fled, from the 
city by night, and appeared the next day 
with his prize at the seminary door, which 
she entered with curiosity, expectation, and 
delight, little, if any, less than that with 
which she and we shalLat last cross the 
threshold of the New Jerusalem. With her 
tall, erect form, dark, flashing eyes, long, 
rather coarse, unkempt hair, and (to a gen- 
tleman) indescribable toilet, coarse, ragged, 
and peculiar, our mountain maid was a sub- 
ject for a painter. It hardly need be said, 
that entering the seminary with feelings 
such as hers, and brought daily, continually 
under the religious influences of the place, 
she, ere long, yielded her heart to the Sav- 
iour about whom she had come to learn. 
Some three years afterwards she was bap- 
tized, and entered into covenant with the 
church in Harpoot, of which she is still a 
member. 



160 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



Her progress in study during the four 
years she was a pupil in the seminary was 
laborious, very slow, and very sure. Any 
thing once learned was learned for perma- 
nence and use. Once having acquired it 
herself, she was ready and able to teach 
others also ; and when examining the girls' 
school, which, during the year past, she 
taught in Central Harpoot, we were both 
amused and gratified at seeing what a female 
seminary in miniature she had. 

Each movement and method were after 
the exact model. And, before a crowd 
which would have abashed almost any other 
pupil, she, with the self-possessed dignity 
of an old, experienced teacher, went through 
the exercises. 

One quality, rare enough in this land, but 
which she exhibited in Occidental measure, 
is that of steadfast performance of duty to 
be done, in spite of the efforts of others to 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 161 



turn her aside. It is a very, very difficult 
thing here to induce teachers to adhere to 
rules laid down for their government, and 
especially in regard to time. But when a 
person of some consequence once tried to 
induce Amy to omit a lesson at its time, and 
was angry with her for failing to comply 
with his wishes, she replied, " The mission- 
aries have put me here to teach these girls ; 
and I shall do it" 

Amusing as it may seem, she still enter- 
tains high ideas of her former condition, and 
speaks in lofty terms of " the big house " in 
which she had the honor of serving. A 
more prolific source of pride is in the atten- 
tions paid by many to "the Koordish girl," 
who is sure to be the first one sought out 
by visitors to the seminary, in which, during 
the present year, she has been made assistant 
teacher. 

She has any but true ideas in regard to our 



162 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



connection with her coming here. As she 
recently stated in a letter, " When the Har- 
poot missionaries learned of my desire to 
come to the seminary, two of them came to 
Chemishgezek to see me." (!) And were we 
to give her all the flattering messages sent 
by those in this land and at home, who feel 
an interest in her, and especially were she 
to hear all the noise that is made about her, 
she and we could with difficulty dwell in the 
same house. 

The earnest spirit of emulation which has 
thus far characterized her leads her to 
aspire even to "complete her education" in 
some American South Hadley or Vassar. 

Disappointed in her plans and efforts, or 
especially wounded in her sensitive-plant 
feelings, she sinks at times into what we call 
" the depths of indigo," tinged, now and then, 
with a hue of sanctimony, constraining the 
writer once to call to her, "Why, Amy, I 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED . 163 



thought you were about to die ; and here you 
are again wickedly taking the air with these 
worldly-minded girls ! " 

But, though not yet blooming in the 
perfect beauty and symmetry of a flower of 
paradise, she is one who adds much to 
the attractions of our " missionary garden." 
Her evidently conscientious desire to do 
right, her patient, prayerful efforts to please 
her teachers as pupil, and now, as assistant 
teacher, to exert a Christian influence over 
those whom she instructs, and her humbling 
sense of her felt deficiencies, give ground to 
hope much for her future usefulness. Would 
that, with a suitable companion, she might 
return to labor for her own people, among 
whom the light of the gospel has hardly 
begun to shine ! 

Her one ungratified desire is to have her 
sister Hedjie a pupil in the seminary. Over 
this she anxiously meditates, and for it she 



164 



GEACE ILLTTSTEATED. 



prays. And if earnest, eloquent, gifted 
prayer avail, lier request will surely ere long 
be granted ; for she knows how to plead with 
God as few or none of her sex here do. 
'Tis said that already Hedjie has learned to 
read, and is watching her opportunity to 
escape from her semi-servitude, and join her 
sister here. But of this we know not. 
Those, certainly, with whom she is living, 
will take good care that she do not too easily 
fall into missionary hands. 

Not so happy the fate of Rose, — we forget 
the Koordish of it, — a girl from a tribe 
residing some seventy-five miles north-east 
from Harpoot. Permitted by her parents to 
reside for a time in a Protestant family in 
the capital of the Geghi district, she formed 
the purpose, which we did not encourage, to 
come to the famous seminary. We advised, 
rather, that, for a time, she study in the 
school taught there by the pastor's wife. 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



165 



But, poor girl ! she was not allowed to do 
it ; for her parents dragged her back to 
their mountain-home, where, against her 
wish, she was married to an untamed Koord. 

Should any one ask why we did not at 
once take this poor girl to Harpoot, we reply, 
" Because we wished first to try her farther ; 
and, secondly, because her tribe, being of the 
wildest sort, would certainly have avenged 
her coming by the blood of some one or 
more members of the family with whom she 
lived. Will not all who read this sketch 
join us in praying for the speedy dawning, 
on these mountain-fastnesses, of the day of 
religious liberty ? 



166 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



XIII. 

A PILLAR REMOVED. 

^^THO shall tell us whether it is from the 
innate force of gospel truth to develop 
leadership, or by special providential ap- 
pointment, that almost without fail, wher- 
ever a little body of believers is collected, 
an Aaron, with, perhaps, an added Hur, 
comes to the front as leader in church-work, 
whether of praying or practical working? 
Were all these earnest workers to be gath- 
ered in some one body, even a pretty large 
one, the effect might not be the best even 
there ; while many a little leaderless band 
would lose heart and all aggressive force, 
and the little light in many a dark place go 
out. 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED, 167 

Such a leader early appeared for the little 
Protestant band in the village of Hulakegh, 
about six miles west from Harpoot. 

At one of Mr. Dunmore's earliest visits 
there, he was sought out by a man, Avak by 
name, who timidly purchased a Bible, and 
hurried away to hide it at a neighbor's 
house, where he might secretly go and read 
the forbidden book ; for, though about forty 
years old, he was, according to Oriental 
custom, still subject to his father, who 
would not allow the " Prote Bible " to enter 
his house. 

Being a church "reader," Avak had not 
to go through the usual tedious process of 
learning to read, but was able, from the first, 
to peruse his new-found treasure understand- 
ingly. Being a sincere, conscientious man, 
the result was, that he was soon known as 
an adherent of the new faith, of which, in 
spite of a somewhat phlegmatic, conserva- 



168 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



tive turn of mind, lie at once became an 
earnest, practical apostle, going from man 
to man, house to house, and village to 
Tillage, as an unpaid preacher. And the 
character of these efforts was in marked 
contrast to those of some of his fellow 
Protestants, who were such merely. In- 
quired one of these one day* " How happens 
it that I have so much trouble, while you, 
who talk so much, get along so easily ?" 
- — "Oh!" replied Avak, "because you seek 
noise; and I, peace and success." — "I see," 
retorted the other, touched by the home- 
thrust, " you raise the plow at every stone, 
while I let it remain."- — "Rather," replied 
Avak, "say that you use the ax on the 
stone." A result of his wise, loving efforts 
to win men, enforced by his consistent 
Christian example, was, that one, and 
another, and another were won to the new, 
old faith, who are now living members of 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



169 



the little Hulakegh church. The death of 
the father soon opened the way for bringing 
home the proscribed book, and made Avak, 
as oldest of three brothers, the head of a 
family of fifteen, who were soon united in 
studying and obeying the new book. Burn- 
ing with zeal to fit himself for more effective 
preaching, he now entered the newly-opened 
theological seminary in Harpoot. But a 
month's trial convinced both him and us 
that he was out of his place ; and he went 
back to labor on in the old way. The ques- 
tion of forming a church in Hulakegh was 
hard to decide, perhaps I should rather say 
easy ; for, though the people were not poorer 
than the mass of those of other villages of 
Harpoot plain, they did seem to be more 
penurious, and to justify very little hope of 
their ever supporting a pastor. The decision 
turned, at last, upon the question, whether 
Avak and his brothers could be induced to 



170 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

pay the unprecedented sum, for a village 
family, of ten dollars a year. To our sur- 
prise and gratification, the presentation of 
the question to him in that form secured an 
immediate affirmative. He could do any 
thing necessary for such an object, and the 
church was formed ; the village of which we 
had said, "No self-supporting church can 
ever be formed there," being among the 
first to assert its independence of foreign 
aid. 

But the days of John Concordance and 
tithe-paying were first to come, and multiply 
this ten dollars by three and more. 

One of John's converts, a student in the 
theological seminary, went to tell the people 
of Hulakegh of the new, easy, and equita- 
ble method of providing for church ex- 
penses. But for Avak to tithe the income 
of himself and brothers, and thus increase 
the ten to thirty-four dollars for the current 



GKACE ILLUSTRATED. 171 

year, was harder than to make the original 
contribution. So, in the meeting held to 
consider the question of tithe-paying, his 
natural conservatism came prominently out, 
and he was forward and efficient in offering 
objections to the new plan. "It would be 
difficult to tell the amount of the tithes," 
an objection, which, from a farmer, who 
would pay in kind, evidently originated 
more in the heart than the head. Then, 
" there would be danger of withholding the 
tithes, and, like tha Jews, 'robbing God,' 
and falling under his wrath and curse," &c. 

This dialogue between pulpit and pews — 
or, rather, seat on the floor, — went on till 
the young theologue summoned courage to 
say, "Brother Avak, it seems to me that 
only those who fear that God will give them 
a good deal are unwilling to return his 
tithes." 

The arrow had reached the mark. His 



172 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

better nature at once re-assumed the ascen- 
dency ; and lie exclaimed, " You are right ! " 
and immediately rose, and began to pray, tell- 
ing the Lord all about his past covetousness, 
and promising to do better in the future. 
And the vow then made he faithfully kept 
till his dying-day, which came in September, 
1869, when he was suddenly prostrated with 
a disease which deprived him of. the power 
of speech, which was restored to him only 
for a very brief period before his death. 
These moments he improved in expressing 
gratitude to God for giving him the power 
of speech once more, and telling those about 
him how much he should love onc£ more to 
make a preaching-tour among the villages. 

This testimony given, he closed his eyes 
and lips, to open them, we doubt not, amid 
the glories and praises of the better world, 
and leaving behind him a name which will 
long have a saintly fragrance in all the region 
around. 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 173 



XIV. 

DEACON AVEDIS. 

fJIHE little Hulakegh church had yet one 
more pillar; but of him, too, the Lord 
had need, and, in the September following 
the death of Avak, called him to higher 
service. 

His was a later and somewhat peculiar 
conversion to the gospel faith. The work in 
the village began, and for some time con- 
tinued, among men exclusively ; and it was 
a happy day, when, by the use of a little 
worldly wisdom — taking a company of mis- 
sionary ladies and Protestant " sisters" from 
Harpoot to a dedication service in the vil- 
lage, and so, by an appeal to innate curiosity, 
luring some women to that dreaded place, a 



174 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

Protestant meeting — we succeeded in con- 
vincing a very few that those who read the 
Scriptures in the modern spoken tongue 
were not worse than Turks. Of those whom 
curiosity lured in, two or three, soon followed 
by a crowd, came again and again ; and, ere 
long, Hulakegh was noted for the extent of 
the evangelical work among the women. 
Among those who first learned to read the 
gospel was the wife of Avedis, thereby so 
putting him to shame, that, he too, purchased 
a primer, and imitated her example. 

The entrance of God's word gave not 
only intellectual light, but spiritual under- 
standing ; and he was soon so- marked for his 
consistent, earnest Christian character, that, 
on the formation of the church in Hulakegh, 
he was chosen as its first deacon. But 
his was to be a very brief earthly service. 
While he lived, he gave himself, with all his 
heart, to the duties of his office, and to gen- 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 175 

eral evangelistic effort among all classes ; so 
that, at his death, " all the village wept/' 
Protestants and Armenians alike. His one 
thought was, "What more can be done to 
advance Christ's work among us? " But, in 
the autumn of 1870, he was seized with 
typhoid-fever, and felt from the first that his 
end was near. He had no fear of death, but 
calmly attended to all necessary business, as 
if he were but going on a journey. His 
greatest care was for the church ; and, when 
reason was dethroned, the current of thought 
was still the same. 

Now he was on the point of leaving his 
"dark, smoky, narrow dwelling, to go and 
dwell in a royal palace, full of light and 
glory," and was urging those about him to 
be ready to accompany him. Again he had 
" drunk to the fill of the living water which 
Jesus promised to the woman of Samaria," 
and invited others to drink too, and see how 



176 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

sweet it was ; and yet again his couch was 
covered with every variety of beautiful and 
sweet-scented flowers from paradise ; and he 
expressed surprise that those about him could 
not see and smell their beauty and sweetness 
as he did. Apparently almost entirely un- 
conscious of pain, and reveling amid such 
delights, he was enjoying on earth rapturous 
foretastes of heaven. To all the church- 
members who visited him, his one charge 
was, " Care well for the church, and labor in 
hope. These clouds will soon all pass away, 
and God will again bless his own cause." 
When his wife inquired, " Why do you not 
talk to us ? " he replied, " I do not need to 
do so. I have already, when in health, said 
enough to you ; and now I only add, 6 Let 
my death put the seal of truth to all my 
counsels.' " 

Once only did he allude to his sufferings, 
saying, u My body is filled with pain, but 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 177 

my soul with joy." Unlike Avak, he de- 
clined to call a physician, saying it would 
do no good ; and, when near his end, he 
set apart the sum he should have paid for 
medical service, saying, "Pay this for the 
missionary work in Koordistan." 

At last, conscious that his end was near, 
he uttered a few last words to those about 
him, and adding, " I shall talk no more," 
closed his eyes in death. The most blessed 
memory which he left behind him was that 
of his character as the peacemaker. And he 
passed away at a time when a threatened 
division in the church seemed to plead most 
effectively for the longer tarrying of such as 
he. This second pillar removed, it almost 
seemed that the little church could not sur- 
vive. But 5 though the two leaders were 
gone, there remained too many of kindred 
spirit, too many loving, praying Christian 
souls, men and women, and they are led by a 



178 GKACE ILLUSTRATED. 



pastor of too much Christian experience, to 
allow the candlestick to be removed out of 
its place. 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 179 



XV. 

DEE KEVOKK. 

J~N our ramble in the missionary garden, 
we shall light upon some specimens of 
doubtful genus, requiring the Master's 
analysis to decide whether they are plants 
of his, or only weeds. Such an one we have 
in Der Kevork (" Priest George "). 

On reaching Harpoot in 1857, we found 
in mission employ, and for the time being 
occupying the Harpoot pulpit, a man of 
about forty-five years, of a rather stout 
build, and sluggish movement, whose face 
wore a somewhat sinister look, together with 
one of triumph and self-satisfaction, which 
combined seemed to say, "I've won a 
victory, and got a reward, and am ready to 



180 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



tell all how to do the same." When sabbath 
came, and he rose to preach, his delight 
seemed to be to pound the pulpit with his 
clinched fist, and throw forth in a spiteful, 
son-of-thunder tone, sentences, which, I sub- 
sequently learned, were aimed against the 
absent sinners from whom he had so recently 
separated, the adherents of the Armenian 
Church, and particularly the priests and 
vartabeds, for whom no terms of condemna- 
tion seemed to him quite adequate. " This 
man," said I, "is a very pugnacious 
preacher. Pity he can't put a little more 
love into his tones." He soon came to call 
on the new missionary, and, sitting down by 
his side, began to rattle off a string of unin- 
telligible sentences, taking it for granted, as 
do all in this land, that, of course, all Ameri- 
cans speak Armenian. Of one sentiment he 
resolved to compel an understanding by a 
slow, measured utterance of u Eench — vore 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 181 

— emus — ay — koogut — ay, — yev — eench 

— vore — koogut — ay — emus — ay." Find- 
ing that decrease of his speed did not in- 
crease the force of my understanding, he 
opened the Testament at Acts iy. 32, and 
helped me to translate his utterance as 
" That which mine is yours is, and that 
which yours is mine is." There I had it. 
The preacher, like most of his class, a son 
of poverty and coyetousness combined, not 
satisfied with the rather fat salary paid 
him from the missionary treasury, proposed 
to divide possessions with the new-comer 
from the golden-hilled land beyond the 
waters. This impression was confirmed, 
when, some days afterwards, he came to put 
his text into practical use by helping him- 
self from the missionary wood-pile. 

Observation during the week impressed 
me rather too forcibly with the idea that 
the new convert was lazy. " Too forcibly," 



182 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



I say ; for to one fresli from live, stirring 
Yankee-land, all the Orient seems to be 
peopled with a dead-and-alive race ; and, of 
course, any individual sluggard is compara- 
tively too harshly judged. But years of 
observation have not only justified the 
opinion then formed, that this particular 
priest was covetous and lazy, but also that 
he is but a representative of his class. It 
would seem, that, by some mysterious pro- 
cess, the holy oil of consecration inoculates 
them all with these two incurable distempers. 
Suffice it to say that Der Kevork's frailties 
seemed day by day less hopeful of removal, 
and all the more so, because he imagined 
that the missionaries dare not offend a 
person of his importance. The wood-pile 
embargo weakened somewhat this confidence, 
which received a more violent shock when 
the missionaries took possession of the city 
pulpit, and he was located in the neic^ - 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 183 

ing village of Husenik, with instructions to 
open a school. 

He must now make a demonstration 
suited to alarm his misguided employers, 
and bring them to terms, — more money, and 
less work, and that in the place of his 
choice, or let them tremble at the prospect 
"of losing so important a proselyte. 

So one day a good Protestant brother, 
with a face the image of despair and alarm, 
rushed panting into our house, and ex- 
claimed, " Der — Ke vork — is — parleying — 
with — the — Armenians ! " The response 
of a hearty laugh and " Praise the Lord for 
it,' 9 was to him inexplicable trifling with 
a solemn matter ; for he had no doubt that 
the breaking of such a pillar would bring a 
Dagon-temple ruin on the Protestant cause. 
But not so we. So when, shortly after, we 
received from him a letter, inquiring, " If I 
remain in your service hereafter, how much 



184 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



will my salary be?" we at once replied, 
" See Matt. xxvi. 15. Your salary will here- 
after be five paras " (half a cent) " per 
month." 

The result was his immediate employment 
by the Armenians of Husenik as their 
preacher, followed by a shout of triumph, to 
tell all the people that the Protestant cause 
was ruined. 

So far there is nothing to show that our 
plant is any thing more than a mere weed, 
a tare of the enemy's sowing in the garden 
of the Lord. But here begins a different 
manifestation. While in missionary employ, 
his scanty store of preaching-material, and 
perhaps scantier supply of Christian charity, 
had constrained him to resort to that most 
abundant and accessible of all stores, — abuse 
of those who differ from us. 

But, once more inside their church, he be- 
gan to surprise all the Armenians, and offend 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



185 



many, by preaching to them the fervid and 
searching evangelical sermons which he had 
heard from the apostolic Dunmore. And the 
result was such a ferment in that town as 
years of missionary preaching could not have 
produced. Contrary to our expectation, he 
did not abuse the missionaries, nor say that 
we were in error. He only compromised 
with his own conscience by conforming to 
certain rites, and repeating certain petitions 
to the saints, which their church-service re- 
quires. The Armenians of Husenik had just 
built them a large and fine stone church ; and 
their new preacher made its arches resound 
with truths new to the crowds who flocked 
to hear him. 

The result was loud and bitter complaint 
by some, who exclaimed, " This Prote is lead- 
ing us all astray from the faith of our 
fathers ! " And when, one day, from some 
imperfection in its construction, the noble 



186 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



pile fell flat, just after the priest had been 
preaching, they declared that the bawling of 
that son of thunder had thrown it down. 

He must preach smoother things, or lose 
his place. And preach them he did for a 
little time, till one day he rose in his place, 
and told a dream. During the preceding 
night he had died, and gone to the judgment- 
seat. With fear and dread, he heard the 
Saviour call one and another and another, 
and declare their eternal destiny for weal or 
woe, and bid the angels execute his sen- 
tence. Near the throne were seven yawning 
mouths of as many different hells; the 
seventh and deepest being reserved for un- 
faithful ministers of the gospel. 

At length his own turn came, and, fixing, 
upon him a look of anger, the judge inquired, 
" Why have you ceased to preach to the 
people the truths which I bade you tell 
them?" "I was speechless," said he ; "for 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



187 



I had done this only to please you, and not 
to satisfy my conscience, and please my 
Master. So he called two mighty angels, 
and said to them, 'Take this unfaithful 
priest, and cast him into the seventh hell.' 

" They seized me, and were dragging me 
towards the mouth, when, uttering a shriek 
of despair, I awoke. And now*I can keep 
silence no longer. I must and shall tell you 
all the truth." 

The result was, that the place soon became 
too hot for him; and he accepted a call to an 
Armenian church in Harpoot, where he re- 
mained ten years or more, preaching with 
more or less faithfulness, but with a con- 
science ill at ease from conformity to the 
customs of the church. On the approach of 
Easter, when all are expected to confess, and 
partake of the communion, his daughter once 
found him weeping over his Bible, and asked, 
" Father, why do you do these things, if 
they are against your conscience ? " 



188 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



"I would not," he replied, "if I were 
young, or had a grown-up son to care for 
me." While here, though his preaching had 
some awakening power upon the masses, 
who heard him gladly, and did many things, 
few, if any, did the one thing needful ; for 
his practice in conforming to church mum- 
mery seemed to deprive the gospel word of 
its ultimate divine force to convert the soul. 
The result was the development of a phari- 
saical spirit of reform in some directions, 
while leaving the root of evil untouched. 

Some, indeed, stirred by his preaching to 
hunger for the bread of life, found their way 
to the Protestant church ; but, for the con- 
sciences of most awakened ones, he had some 
ready salve which was effectual in soothing 
them to rest. 

If he ever himself felt the Spirit's power 
in his heart, his sinful compliance has so 
dulled his perceptions, and the teachings of 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



189 



his church (practically ignoring, if not deny- 
ing, the work of the Spirit in days subsequent 
to the apostles) have so obscured his mental 
vision, that, instead of directing the troubled 
sinner to the only Physician, he. finds for him 
in outward works an opiate for an awakened 
conscience. 

But in Harpoot, too, difficulties arose ; and, 
some months since, he accepted a call to 
Gaban Maden, where, doubtless, he will run 
much the same course, and go, ere many 
years, to that judgment-seat before which, in 
vision, he trembled and shrieked. 

Fortunately we are not called upon to do 
Christ's work of judgment; for, 66 if we 
were," as a good old man once said, " we 
should let many into heaven who don't 
belong there, and keep out many who do." 



190 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



XVI. 

"THE LORD'S BEDROS." 

~y£R. DUNMORE had not been long in 
Harpoot, before he was able to write, 
that a " notorious tippler " had been won to 
the truth. 

Nor were these early hopes to be disap- 
pointed. The tippler not only became and 
continued a sober man, but, infinitely better, 
a sincere Christian. 

He at once began to devote a large part of 
his time to efforts to lead others to the truth, 
supporting himself and family by laboring a 
part of the time at his trade as a gunsmith. 
A man of much native tact and shrewdness, 
though uneducated, he soon became a walk- 
ing concordance of the Scriptures ; being 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 191 



always ready to give chapter and verse. He 
was, besides, entirely fearless in prosecuting 
his evangelistic labors; so that, ere long, Mr. 
Dunmore wisely judged that he should be 
employed as a permanent missionary helper ; 
and from that day to this, eighteen years, he 
has, with the exception of one year, been 
thus employed, winning many souls to Christ, 
for, from the first, he fixed his heart on 
this single aim. His tact in so quoting 
Scripture as to silence opposers enables him 
to win his way where most would retire 
abashed ; while his simplicity and earnestness 
of Christian character give him great power 
in convincing those who approach him. An 
incident in his early labors will illustrate 
this. He started for the village of Haboosie, 
distant some twelve miles from Harpoot, 
and meeting successively three men on the 
way, who inquired whither he was going, he 
was, on informing them, met by the reply 



192 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



" There is a certain Torose there, by winning 
whom to Protestantism, you will convince us, 
also, of its truth. Bedros needed no other 
challenge to find out and labor for this wicked 
and apparently incorrigible opposer ; and he 
was soon won, not only to Protestantism, but, 
better still, apparently to Christ ; and, though 
his has been a hard fight against his old 
nature, such is his reputation for saintliness, 
that he has been called even by a sick priest 
to read and pray with, in hope of healing 
him. 

If there be a stronghold of opposition, 
Bedros is the man to enter it, either by direct 
attack or by stratagem. 

Such, for centuries, has been the haughty 
insolence of the Turks to the Armenians here, 
that, till the coming of missionaries, they did 
not even allow them to beat a goachnag, a 
piece of board used in some places to sum- 
mon the people to church. In Harpoot city, 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 193 



Mr. Dunmore first used such a board for his 
own meetings ; and, in time, the Armenians 
followed suit. 

It was a more difficult thing to introduce 
the custom in outlying places, and especially 
in Palu, where Bedros was for a time labor- 
ing, because the foolish Armenians, jealous of 
the Protestants for enjoying a privilege which 
they dared not claim, complained to the Turks 
that that Protestant was breaking the law; 
and the governor of the city forbade Bedros 
to beat his goachnag again. But, hearing that 
the pasha of the district was coming with a 
retinue of soldiers, he resolved by one bold 
stroke to stop the mouths of all opposers; and 
just as his Excellency, with all his retinue, 
came down the hillside opposite the Pro- 
testant church, Bedros went upon the roof, 
and gave out a loud, emphatic rub-a-dub-dub, 
rub-a-dub-dub, from his board, and then 
hastily descending, and outrunning the 

13 



194 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



Armenians who started to complain to the 
pasha, he paid his respects to him, and at 
once entered a complaint against them as 
men trying to restrain him in the enjoyment 
of his religious right to call his people 
together for worship. A stern rebuke to 
them, with an order to let him alone, sent 
them away unheard ; and henceforth they, 
too, began to use a goachnag. 

Calling once at a monastery, and upon a 
vartabed, a relative of his, he was rudely 
repulsed with, " You have apostatized : I don't 
know you." — "Very well," replied Bedros, 
" if I have strayed, you should have sought 
me. But, instead of this, I have sought you; 
and you must now by this gospel convince 
me of my errors." Ill prepared for a conflict 
with such a weapon, the vartabed fled to 
another room of the monastery, in which the 
Turkish governor of Palu was a guest. But 
Bedros was not to be shaken off so easily, 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED . 



195 



aJlid at once followed him. Being asked by 
the governor who he was, he replied, " I 
am a Protestant preacher of the gospel ; but 
this Christian vartabed refuses me lodgings." 
— " Be my guest, then," he replied ; and, 
turning to the vartabed, asked, " Is not your 
gospel the same ? " He failing to answer, 
Bedros replied, " It is ; but he does not 
receive it. To prove this, let him say whether 
some things which I say are not true." At 
this the governor laughed heartily, and said, 
" Say on." — " First of all, then," said Bedros, 
" the gospel says, ' If thine enemy hunger, 
feed him ; if he thirst, give him drink : ' but 
this vartabed does not receive us, though we 
are his friends and relatives." At this the 
governor said to the vartabed, " You have 
done wrong, and should repent," at which the 
latter left in confusion, but soon returned, 
and beckoned Bedros to follow him, who, 
having taken supper with the governor, did 



196 GEACE ILLUSTRATED. 

so. Seated in another room, the vartabed 
told Bedros that he did not hate, but pity, 
him for his errors. " Convince me of them, 
then, by this book," was the instant reply of 
Bedros, pulling out his Testament. " I will 
try," replied the vartabed. " Tell me, then, 
whence you have authority to preach the gos- 
pel ? " — " Here in 1 Pet. ii. 9," was the ready 
reply, " it is said to common Christians, 6 Ye 
are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, 
... that ye should show forth the praises 
of him who hath called you out of darkness 
into his marvelous light.' In Acts viii. 4, 
we read that common Christians went every- 
where preaching the word. And here in 
1 Pet. iv. 10, 'tis said, 'As every man hath 
received the gift, even so minister the same 
one to another.' " Unable to meet this array 
of texts, the vartabed changed the subject. 
Another vartabed coming in, and the servants 
of the monastery gathering around them, 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



197 



Bedros tlien spent four hours in faithfully 
preaching the gospel, and at the close was 
followed to his room by a white-haired old 
man, who, telling him of a pilgrimage made 
by him to Jerusalem in the vain hope of 
finding peace of conscience, added, " I am 
ignorant. I do not know the way of salva- 
tion. Will you tell me what I must do to 
be saved?" 

The poor old man listened as for his life, 
while Bedros told the story of the cross, and, 
at the close, exclaimed, " Alas ! I have lost 
my days ! " and continued asking questions 
till past midnight. 

Warned by the people of Palu to desist 
from a proposed journey into the mountain- 
ous district to the north, as two men had 
just been robbed and murdered there, he 
assured them that he was ready not only to 
be robbed, but to die if need be, for the sake 
of preaching the gospel to his perishing 



198 GKACE ILLUSTRATED. 



countrymen in that district. So go lie did, 
and fell into the hands of the Koords, six 
of whom, entering a house where he was a 
guest, robbed him of his watch and aba, a 
sort of cloak. 

To the expostulations of the host, the 
robber chief replied, " Were God to come 
down from heaven, he could not prevent our 
taking what this man has." 

He then demanded the rest of Bedros' 
clothes, and his money, which he refused to 
give up, unless force were used ; and then he 
so set the robber's sin before him, and so 
excited his fears by appealing to the Moham- 
medan belief, that, at the judgment, the 
wicked must make good all the wrong in- 
flicted on others, that he recovered back his 
watch and aba. His argument, in short, 
was this, " Do you believe there is a God ? " 
_ u yes." — " Will all men die ? " — " Yes." 
— "And be judged?" —"Yes." — "They 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 199 



will indeed," continued Bedros ; " and what 
then can you do ? If a naked man were in 
the water, and ten men, pointing their swords 
at his breast, should say, 6 Give us one para,' " 
(a tenth of a cent), " 6 or we will kill you,' 
could he give it?" — "No," replied the 
Koord. " So you," continued Bedros, " will 
be naked before God in the judgment, when 
he shall demand of you this watch and aba, 
and, on your failing to restore them, send 
you to the place of everlasting torment." 

The result was, that the Koord, having 
returned what he had taken, begged a copy 
of the Testament, from which Bedros went 
on to preach to him till half-past three 
o'clock in the morning, when the robber lay 
down to rest. But Bedros, though a firm 
believer in the perseverance of the saints, 
fearing that this unclean spirit had only left 
for a time, sat and watched his sleeping 
convert till dawn, who, on waking, began 



200 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



with much delight to show his Testament to 
his companions, and to tell them of the 
wonderful truths which Bedros had told him 
from it. At leaving, Bedros still feared that 
the robbers would intercept and rob him on 
his journey, as they had once before done to 
a guest, when bribed by the host to let him 
depart in peace ; but his fears were ground- 
less. And thus summer and winter, during 
most of these long years, sometimes through 
the pathless snows of the mountains, and 
often in perils of robbers, but never robbed, 
he has eome and gone with a burning apos- 
tolic zeal which deservedly won for him the 
name, " Apostle." A little missionary girl 
five years old was so impressed by what she 
heard of his Christian zeal, that hearing us 
address him as Bedros, and curious to know 
whether he was the one, inquired, " Are you 
the Lord's Bedros ? " He " hoped he was," 
and so do we assuredly. Sure we are that 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



201 



he lias been instrumental in leading many to 
Christ. In these latter clays, with the weight 
of j'ears increasing upon him, his vigor and 
efficiency, if not his zeal, have been less con- 
spicuous; but he seems to be the Lord's 
Bedros still, aiming with singleness of pur- 
pose to do the work which the Master gives 
him. 



202 



GEACE ILLUSTRATED. 



XVII. 



"THIEF MAGHAK. 



9 9 



ND a shrewd, sharp one he was, till the 



gospel got hold of him, which it began 
to do in one of his oil-peddling tours. 

From that day he became so upright in his 
dealings as even to redeem from reproach 
the more contemptuous name of " Prote 1 
Maghak," which his adherence to the gospel 
fixed upon him. Even discussions over rites 
and ceremonies, usually worse than useless, 
can be useful, as was seen in his case. Per- 
haps we should rather say, that passages from 
God's word are so gemlike in their luster as 
to glitter even when cast among such rub- 

1 An abreviation of "Protestant," but so pronounced 
as to mean "porode," a "leper." 





THIEF MAGHAK. 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 203 

bish. Being present at such a discussion in 
the village of Ichmeh, Maghak's attention 
was drawn to a passage quoted by one of 
the disputants : " Now the Spirit speaketh 
expressly, that, in the latter times, some shall 
depart from the faith, . . . forbidding to 
marry, and commanding to abstain from 
meats." He came away, saying to himself, 
" These false teachers can not be the so 
much reviled Protestants ; for their mission- 
aries are married, and they make no rules 
about abstaining from meats ; while our 
bishops and vartabeds never marry, and are 
very scrupulous about meat-eating on certain 
clays." The result of these meditations was, 
that he resolved to obtain a "Protestant 
Bible," and examine for himself ; and, though 
knowing not a letter of the alphabet, he at 
once bought the book, adding its key, a 
primer. Putting the latter in his bosom 
while on his peddling tours, and exacting a 



204 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



lesson from every reader to whom he sold his 
sesame oil, he was soon able, though stam- 
meringly, to study the Bible for himself. 
The change was immediate and complete. 
From being notorious for dishonesty, he 
became equally famous for integrity in his 
dealings ; so that even the Turkish owner of 
the soil which he and his brothers cultivated 
ceased to measure his share of the crop, 
taking Maghak's word for it. Soon his two 
brothers, and all the members of their united 
households, became adherents of the despised 
faith, now no longer despised in this region ; 
for such has been the power of the gospel in 
externally saving people from the power of 
wickedness, that, alike among Mohamme- 
dans and nominal Christians, Prote no longer 
means leper, but an adherent of a purer 
faith than that of the mass. 

Maghak still lives, though too feeble for 
any service, except that of illustrating the 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED . 



205 



power of divine grace by a consistent Chris- 
tian life. 

He can not long survive; but while the 
smoky light of his sesame oil is giving place 
to the still more smoky emanations 1 of kero- 
sene, and the oil-trade fast becoming a thing 
of the past, many a year must go by ere the 
light of the oil-peddler's life shall cease to 
shine in his native village, and others which 
have been reached by his story. 

1 As the "kerosene is burned in common wick lamps, 
and usually with the wick pulled high up, the already 
blackened rafters of Oriental village homes are rapidly 
enriching themselves with a more luxurious accumula- 
tion of the essential soot. 



206 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



XVIII. 

DIVERSE GIFTS. 

rjlHE village of Shukhaji, perched upon 
the sides of a spur of the Taurus Moun- 
tains, some twenty miles east of Harpoot, 
early enjoyed the advantage of missionary 
labor by the location there of a native helper 
by Mr. Dunmore, the first missionary in 
the Harpoot field. And while, for several 
reasons, and among these the death of two 
native laborers successively located there, 
the gospel fruit has not been as abundant as 
we desire, it has furnished rather striking 
specimens of Christian life, two of which, 
by their contrasted character, suggest the 
heading given above. The first man to de- 
clare himself an adherent of the gospel was 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 207 



a hardy muleteer, Arakial (" Apostle ") 
by name, whose nature and vocation had 
combined to make a resolute, independent, 
hard-headed, stout-handed man, with whom 
few cared to come into conflict. And, when 
the gospel took hold of his sturdy manhood, 
it took strong hold, and kept it. Everybody 
knew that that muleteer was an adherent of 
the new doctrines. 

A brother's wife, residing in the same 
house, soon followed him, and suffered what 
he could not, — persecution. This woman 
was an especial object of hatred to Arakial's 
wife, by whom, in the absence of the hus- 
band, she was treated in a shamefully cruel 
manner. Resolved to put an end to this, 
Arakial, on his return, gave his wife a whip- 
ping, which cured her of her propensity (or, 
at least, the indulgence of it) to torment her 
sister-in-law. When expostulated with by 
Mr. Dunmore for this energetic method of 



208 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



administering family discipline, he replied, 
" Oh ! I was only giving her a needed curtain- 
lecture." The native helper dying, the vil- 
lagers rose in force to prevent his burial ; but 
going himself, and digging a grave, he stood 
by it, pickax in hand, requesting any one of 
the mob who desired to be buried first to 
come on at once. The young preacher was 
buried in peace. 

And our new convert was equally zealous 
in effort to lead others to the truth, though, 
in doing so, he showed himself somewhat of 
a " son of thunder," presenting quite freely 
the aggressive, vindictif e side of the gospel, 
and being a little too much inclined to blame 
people for not coming to the light as readily 
and quickly as had he. 

He still lives, and, while enfeebled by age 
and hard fare, is the same unflinching ad- 
herent of truth and right as he understands 
it, and in his deep poverty makes sacrifices 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 209 



for the gospel's sake, some of which would 
not be appreciated in enlightened Christian 
lands; such, for instance, as giving a rich 
young preacher a valuable daughter gratis, 
instead of taking from thirty to fifty dollars, 
as those villagers not adhering to the gospel, 
and perhaps even some professing to do 
that, would have done. 

Come we now to one whose nature and 
gifts are diverse from these. Hazar was no 
"son of thunder," but a man of peace, of a 
gentle, loving temper, ruled less by impulse 
than by conscience. A younger brother in a 
large, and, for that place, wealthy family, 
he, by his quiet sincerity and energy, took 
the place of leader, and had almost undis- 
puted control of the family property. There 
was one thing, however, which he could not 
control, — a wife as little inclined to gospel 
ways as was she whom Arakial ruled ; and 
the result is, that, while the latter soon 

14 



210 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



changed her naughty ways, the former holds 
to hers still. 

Hazar, having been a 44 reader" in the old 
church, was at once ready for reading and 
receiving the Scriptures in the modern 
tongue. 

A visit to his home would have given one 
a vivid idea of the diminutive amount of 
real comfort which even wealth usually pur- 
chases in this land. Wrote a missionary 
lady who visited it, 44 We went to Hazar's 
house, or rather hovel. As we entered, six 
men were taking breakfast at one table ; and 
seven women, in another place, had their food 
upon the floor; while four dirty urchins 
occupied another part of the room. It was 
a scene. Poor man ! he does not get much 
comfort at home. But his trials have been 
sanctified to him ; for I never saw a more 
exemplary Christian. Of course, my testi- 
mony alone would not be sufficient to war- 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 211 



rant the declaration; but all others give him 
the same character." 

The " trials " alluded to were from a long 
and expensive conflict in the effort to erect a 
parsonage and a church, in which he took the 
lead, and which made sore drafts on both 
patience and purse ; he having personally 
contributed three hundred and fifty dollars, 
while all the property of the family would, 
probably, not exceed fifteen hundred dollars. 
And yet we, who were deeply interested in 
the case, and doing what we could to help it 
on, did not know till afterwards how much 
it had cost pecuniarily and otherwise, so 
equable and calm was his temper, and so un- 
assuming his manner at all times. He had 
consecrated himself and his all to Christ, and 
took it for granted that the consecration was 
accepted. 

If there was any thing which we would 
have changed, it was this perfect uniformity. 



212 GBACE ILLUSTRATED. 

Had he sometimes made his family piety a 
little less patient, a little more forcible and 
aggressive, he might have seen greater 
changes for the better in his large family 
circle. Said a quiet, patient saint to a rest- 
less, aggressive " son of thunder," " You do a 
great many things to harm Christ's work." 
— "And you," was the not less truthful 
reply, " neglect a great many things to harm 
it." 

This remark might have been made with 
some justice of Hazar ; but, take him all in 
all, he was a very good man, — one of whom 
it was justly said, " I never saw a more ex- 
emplary Christian," and " All give him the 
same character." 

His one great aim, prayer, and effort was, 
that Christ's work might advance. 

But just when he seemed indispensable to 
this progress, just when the struggle over 
the church and parsonage was over, and we 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 213 

began to hope that an independent church 
would soon be formed in Shukhaji, he was 
laid upon a bed of sickness, and at once 
said, " I shall not rise from it, but shall die." 
Fearing lest members of the family might, 
after his death, cause trouble to the little 
Protestant community, by laying claim to 
the property for which he had paid so heav- 
ily, he took pains to make all legally safe. 

Some years before, he had joined the Har- 
poot church, but subsequently transferred 
his membership to the church in Ichmeh, 
nearer his home. But, upon his sick-bed, he 
recalled his old love, and, on the fifteenth 
day of his illness, sent to the Harpoot 
church a special message of affection, add- 
ing, " Tell them, that, though I am to die 
to-night, I have never been so peaceful as 
now." And so he did die that night, peace- 
fully trusting in Christ to the last. In vain 
the old priest came, and begged to aid in 



214 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

saving his soul, saying, " Open your mouth, 
that I may give you the communion, — a 
piece of the body of Christ." He patiently 
allowed him to read and go through the mum- 
meries of his church, keeping his mouth 
closed alike for communion and rebuke. He 
knew in whom he had believed, and knew, 
also, that the old priest could do him neither 
good nor harm. To avoid an unseemly 
quarrel, the priest was also allowed to com- 
mit the body to the grave with the same 
harmless forms ; for we knew that the soul 
was safe in the hands of Him who had 
bought and cleansed it with his own blood. 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 215 



XIX. 

GRACE ABOUNDING. 

BY MRS. O. P. ALLEN. 

gEVENTEEN years have passed since the 
first prayer-meeting was established at 
Harpoot. In its early history, one chilly day 
in December, when the spacious room was 
crowded with eager listeners, the attention 
of the missionary was arrested by one who 
was present for the first time. Her fine in- 
tellectual countenance, dress, and grace of 
manner, were in striking contrast to most 
of those around her. In conversation with 
her after the meeting, she showed no signs 
of interest in the truth which had been 
uttered; and there was little expectation 
that she would come again. But in this 



216 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

case, as it too frequently happens, we failed to 
recognize the power of Him who holds the 
hearts of all in his hand, and is able to turn 
them whithersoever he will. From that 
time till her death (in 1871), she was in 
constant attendance, with the exception of 
the first three years, when she was occasion- 
ally absent, and during which time the truth 
seemed to make no impression on her heart. 
She was devoted to the world. She listened 
attentively to religious conversation and the 
reading of the Scriptures, and became famil- 
iar with the great truths of salvation, but 
manifested a stern determination to resist 
entreaties to seek Christ. 

But the Holy Spirit came, and she was 
led to see her sin and danger. She fled to 
the cross, and there found the joy of for- 
given sin. The change in her life was very 
marked. From a proud, worldly woman, she 
became a humble and self-denying Christian. 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 217 

The things she counted gain before were 
now loss. She remarked, one day, to a 
friend, that her husband was urging her to 
prepare a marriage-outfit for Hanum (her 
daughter) ; but, said she, " I tell him it is 
not well to lay up treasures upon earth, 
where moth and rust doth corrupt." And 
she could not be prevailed upon to make the 
quantity of clothes the custom required, and 
which she was amply able to do, for the sole 
reason that she did not think it worthy an 
immortal soul to spend so much time on that 
which was to perish so soon. 

One of the first lessons that the Spirit 
taught her was, that not only she herself, 
but all she called her own, belonged to 
Christ. 

To the poor she gave frequently and 
freely, and with her own hands, but made 
others almoners of her contributions for the 
cause of Christ. Many a gold coin she 



218 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



brought to the pastor's wife, saying, a You 
know better than I what part of the work 
of the Lord is most needy." It was suffi- 
cient for her to know that the money went 
into the treasury of the Lord. Her chil- 
dren, too, were consecrated to the Master. 
Her eldest son fitted for the work of the 
ministry ; but, health failing, he was not 
able to preach, and yet was able to give 
instruction in both seminaries for several 
years. One daughter became the wife of 
a preacher. Both she and her husband, this 
year, have joined the mother in the better 
land. 

Mariam was the wife of a watchmaker, 
Puroodian by name. She prayed with an 
intense longing for the conversion of her 
husband; but the "convenient time" did 
not come till years afterward. One day, 
during a religious awakening, she came to 
the prayer-meeting, and, with a voice chok- 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



219 



ing with emotion, begged the sisters to pray 
for her husband. The request was heeded ; 
many fervent prayers being offered in his 
behalf. The next day he asked his son to 
pray with him, saying that his family were 
all going to heaven, but that he was doomed 
to perdition. At the meeting the following 
week, she came with a joyful heart, to 
praise God for his mercy in bringing him to 
Christ. 

For years she was in feeble health, being a 
victim to a lingering consumption. She was 
often prostrated by disease, but, if she had 
power to walk about, was sure to come to 
the place of worship. She loved the prayer- 
meeting; and neither storms nor cold kept 
her at home. A year before her death, one 
wintry day, she came into the meeting, so 
exhausted from the effort to ascend a steep 
hill, that she could not speak for some mo- 
ments. One remarked to her, " You are 



220 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

not able to walk such a distance." She re- 
plied, "What shall I do? I have a great 
desire to come." During the following win- 
ter, she became very sick, and her friends 
gave up all hope of her recovery. But she 
again rallied ; and once more hope revived. 

One morning, shortly after, a request came 
to the pastor and wife to visit her. As 
they entered her room, she said to them, " I 
am a pilgrim. I am going. I wish you to 
forgive me, if in any way I have wronged 
you, or injured your feelings." She had 
always treated them with the greatest kind- 
ness. They never visited her without re- 
ceiving some token of her love, not given 
on the impulse of the moment, but some- 
thing reserved especially for them. 

She was sitting up in bed, and seemed as 
well as usual; and her friends tried to 
assure her that she was so. But she con- 
fidently affirmed that it had been revealed 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED . 221 



to her that night, that she was soon to leave 
them. She wished that all her relatives and 
acquaintances be called ; and from them she 
sought forgiveness for every unkind word. 
She distributed the gold coins of her neck- 
lace among her friends, giving to her pastor's 
family several pieces as memorials of her 
love. The poor received from her own 
hands her clothes, with the exception of one 
suit. When the last garment had been dis- 
posed of, she smilingly said, "I have nothing 
left, except the clothes for my burial." 

For a season, darkness came over her. 
She — to use her own words — "lost her 
Jesus." But the clouds soon dispersed ; and 
He in whom her soul had taken great 
delight stood forth more glorious than ever 
before. She sent for her pastor, and, with a 
countenance beaming with joy, said, as he 
sat beside her, " I have all things now. I 
have found my Jesus: I have found my 



222 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

Jesus! He left me for a little while; but 
he has returned." From that time till her 
death, a few days after, her mind was in 
"perfect peace." Death had no terrors for 
her. It was onlv the door through which 
she would enter into the " many mansions." 
It was her great desire that her pastor should 
perform her burial service ; but it so hap- 
pened, that there was to be a meeting at a 
place some three days' distant from Harpoot. 
The day for starting had been fixed. Should 
the pastor go, and leave this dying saint? 
He presented the case before her, and asked 
what he should do. " Go," was her quick 
reply. " Of course, you must go. Shall the 
work of the Lord be hindered for me ? It 
will make but little difference who buries my 
poor body." So the pastor bade her a last 
good-by. 

The following morning she sweetly and 
peacefully fell asleep. 



GEACE ILLUSTRATED. 



223 



" Asleep in Jesus! oh, how sweet 
To be for such a slumber meet ! 
With holy confidence to sing 
That death has lost its venomed sting." 



224 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED . 



XX. 

PATIENT SARKIS. 

FJ1HE wind, bearing the thistledown away 
over hill and dale, deposits its seed to 
grow and multiply on the distant mountain- 
side ; or, better still, the little bird places 
beside it the seed of some fruit-bearing tree, 
brought from far, for a slower growth and a 
richer fruitage to bless men of coming time : 
but more mysterious and blessed still is 
God's providential work of scattering the 
good seed of his word at times. Some sev- 
enty-five miles north-east from Harpoot, 
hemmed in among the Anti-Taurus Moun- 
tains, and surrounded on all sides by Koords, 
are some thousands of Armenians, scattered 
over a district of some four hundred square 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



225 



miles, mostly isolated from the mass of the 
nation, and, till within a few years, sunk in 
the deepest spiritual ignorance, and fanati- 
cally attached to their national church. 
About twenty-five years ago, Sarkis, an 
inhabitant of the Kasabah, or chief town 
of this district, visited Constantinople, and, 
while there, received a present of a Testa- 
ment, which, though unable to read, he took 
home, and hid in his house ; for no one there 
might then with safety declare himself the 
possessor of the hated Protestant book. 

The mass of the people were in the same 
condition of ignorance : but a few persons, 
called deratsoos, specially trained for aiding 
the priests in reading the church service, 
were possessed of the wonderful power of 
reading. To one of these he at length in- 
trusted the secret of the strange book, and 
begged him to read it to him. 

Then the good seed of the Word, so provi- 

15 



226 GKACE ILLUSTRATED. 



dentially wafted hither from far away, began 
to take root, and spring up. Others joined 
the reader and listener ; and soon there was a 
little company who held secret meetings for 
reading. But secret they could not long 
remain; for the words they heard were as 
fire shut up in their bones. 

This was especially true of Sarkis, whose 
heart was touched, and with meekness and 
courage he began to tell all abroad the con- 
tents of the wonderful volume, which he 
himself soon learned to read. As this must 
be stopped, the priests and the chief man of 
the town headed a mob, who went to the 
house of Sarkis, beat him, cast him into 
prison, and, making a fire in a public place, 
threw his Testament into it. 

The imprisoning and beating were repeated 
again and again, but all to no purpose. Like 
the apostles before the sanhedrim, he re- 
plied, " Whether it be right in the sight of 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 227 

.God to hearken unto you more than unto 
God, judge ye. For I can not but speak the 
things which I have heard." To supply the 
place of the burned Testament, he went three 
days' journey to Erzroom, and purchased 
another, to which he afterwards added a 
Bible, and was known by all as a Protestant. 

Meanwhile, the son of the leader of the 
mob, a young man, Hampartsoom (" Ascen- 
sion ") by name, attached himself to the gos- 
pel party, and was told by his father that he 
must forsake the society of Sarkis, and leave 
off reading the forbidden book, or leave his 
house. But, when he took his wife's hand 
to depart, the father's heart relented. The 
father and an elder brother having died not 
long after, Hampartsoom, without professing 
to be a Protestant, began to hold meetings 
at his house for Scripture-reading. As the 
priests dare not touch a man of his wealth 
and influence, one step was gained in the 



228 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

direction of religious liberty, — the right to 
read the Bible. 

But it would have been amusing, had it 
not been painful, to see the timidity of these 
Bible-readers. In 1858, accompanied by the 
present pastor of the Harpoot church, I 
started to visit the place ; but when in Tem- 
ran, some nine miles distant, we were met by 
Sarkis, who had come as their delegate, to 
request, that unless proposing to remain in 
the Kasabah, so as to protect them, we would 
not visit the place, and thus stir up against 
them the enmity of the people. 

To this we, of course, replied, " We come 
not for you alone, but for all the people ; and 
if you are afraid of being called our friends, 
and suffering persecution, you are at liberty 
to stay away." At first, all except Sarkis 
did stay away ; but sixteen of them speedily 
repented of their cowardice, and, furnishing 
us with a room of their own, treated us as 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



229 



their guests. Among these was not Hain- 
partsoom, though apparently not from fear of 
persecution, but, rather, fearing loss of influ- 
ence for good, as he called it ; but during 
our week's stay there, uniformly at nine, p.m., 
he rapped at our doors, and remained till the 
night was far spent, conversing on gospel 
truth. " These sixteen," said he, " are now 
able to stand ; and I commit them to you, and 
go back to the church to win others." Poor 
man ! In vain we tried to show him the sin 
and danger of his course. Before we left 
the place, he made us a great feast, to which 
were invited some of the chief dignities of 
the town, for Oriental courtesy required this 
of him. And, at our subsequent visits to the 
place, he was uniformly friendly, at times 
even attending the Protestant meetings ; 
but, to the time of his death, he. retained his 
connection with the Armenian Church, seem- 
ing to have no deep heart-experience of the 



230 GKACE ILLUSTRATED. 



power of evangelical truth; and, now that he 
is^ gone, his sons seem to be still further 
removed from its influence. 

The contrast between him and Sarkis was 
from the first marked. With the latter, 
there was no attempt to serve two masters. 
While so patient as to bear for many years 
persecution of the most violent kind, without 
indulging any bitter feeling towards his per- 
secutors, and so timid and self-distrusting, 
that, even to this day, 'tis said that he reads 
family prayers from a prayer-book, yet, in 
all efforts to promote the gospel cause, he is 
an earnest, efficient leader, his timidity and 
self-distrust all disappearing when action is 
called for. 

Hard and long was the contest against 
enemies who were resolved to prevent it, 
before the little church-building was erected, 
and longer and more trying still the struggle 
before a person suited to be pastor of the 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED . 



231 



prospective church was secured, and his 
salary made up. But at length the end was 
gained ; and, some months since, a fruit of 
that one Testament appeared in the forma- 
tion of a church of twenty-four members 
from the Kasabah and neighboring towns, 
with the prospect of, ere long, forming 
another in Temran, while the leaven has 
spread extensively throughout the district, 
two other towns in which are occupied by 
evangelical laborers. 

Meanwhile a rich blessing has come upon 
the family of Sarkis. His wife, an earnest 
Christian, went once rejoicing down to 
death's door, but was raised up to see one of 
her two daughters graduate from Harpoot 
Female Seminary, and return to marry their 
young pastor, and the other now one of the 
most promising pupils in the seminary, both 
sincere Christians. But his richest blessing 
is in seeing the moral reformation which has 



232 GEACE ILLUSTRATED. 



followed from that Testament so providen- 
tially placed in his hands, and which, having 
drawn in its train hundreds of Bibles and 
Testaments, and thousands of other volumes, 
— primers, copies of "Saints' Rest," Dod- 
dridge's " Rise and Progress," " Pilgrim's 
Progress," hymn-books, catechisms &c, — 
has inaugurated a moral change in that hith- 
erto benighted district, which is but faintly 
indicated by the fact of the formation of the 
little church. Years ago, when a sermon 
was preached there on the sin of lying, and 
applied by saying, " You know that all of 
you except Sarkis are liars," no one took 
offense; but to make such an application 
now would be both unjust and unsafe ; for a 
moral sentiment has arisen in the commu- 
nity, and a public opinion, which, while it 
demands truthfulness, at least, from the pro- 
fessed friends of the gospel, makes them 
resent the imputation of falsehood. 



GKACE ILLUSTRATED. 233 

And by the side of the patient man, after 
so many years of unwearied waiting and 
working, stand at length some others whose 
hearts are moved only less deeply than his 
own, to see the entire district renovated by 
the gospel. And we trust the number will 
go on increasing, till even the surrounding 
Koords shall feel the influence of that Testa- 
ment in the hands of Sarkis, and of his 
patient waiting, praying, and toiling. 

"There shall be an handful of corn in 
the earth upon the top of the mountains ; 
the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon." 



234 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



XXI. 

THE DESPAIRING SILVERSMITH. 

FJIHE modern gospel-net, equally with that 
of apostolic days, gathers some fish fit 
only to be cast away. If, then, we are to 
give a fair sample of our saints, or, rather, 
if we are so to gather our bouquet as to 
show honestly what is growing here in the 
garden of the Lord, we must pluck this one 
evident weed ; for among the weeds we must 
surely class this one, unless we suppose the 
heavenly analysis to differ essentially from 
ours. 

In our earlier missionary days, most of 
the native helpers were men of little or no 
education ; some of them knowing little more 
than to read the Scriptures. Among those 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



235 



thus employed and sent forth, was a native 
of Gaban Maden, who, upon the decline of 
that place, had removed to the vicinity of 
Harpoot, and connected himself with the 
church here. Being a man of considerable 
personal presence and fluent speech, and, 
withal, quite zealous for the new faith, he 
was employed, and sent to labor in Ichmeh, 
a town which had a visitation of at least 
two worthless, if not harmful, laborers before 
it was blessed by the coming of " Little 
Gregory," its present pastor. Garabed the 
silversmith went; but the work did not 
open ; and, on visiting the place, we had not 
far to look for the cause. 

The zealous brother was a lazy, inefficient 
laborer; and when he did, now and then, 
wake up, it was only to discuss questions of 
form and ceremony with the Armenians. In 
vain we urged him to let alone the fasts, 
" which even heathen Turks eat," and point 
the people to Jesus. 



236 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

The poor man did not seem to know the 
way. Alas ! he had himself been con- 
verted (?) under the labors of one whose 
first sermon to the people of Maden had 
been acted in a coffee-shop by cooking and 
eating an egg on a fast day. So we called 
him back to work at his trade as a silver- 
smith, at which he was so much offended, 
as, to his dying-day, to look upon us with 
no kindly eye. It soon appeared that the 
gospel had not made him a more honest man 
than before, when he had weighted the silver 
with excessive alloy. When expostulated 
with, he made the usual apology of such 
sinners, — that he must live in some way, 
and could not do it honestly at that trade ; 
for, were he to be honest, people would not 
believe it. But at length he had a (mil to 
what promised to be a more gainful pursuit. 

The people of the neighboring town of 
Yegheki, so roused by rumors of the new 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 237 

gospel as to wish to hear it, and yet unwill- 
ing to break away from their own church, 
and bear the reproach of being Protestants, 
invited the silversmith to become their 
preacher on condition of his putting in the 
usual alloy of crosses, fasts, and other super- 
stitions. He accepted their call, and labored 
among them a year, when he returned to his 
old trade and old ways. But ere long he 
was laid upon a sick-bed, from which he was 
not to rise. For a time, he seemed uncon- 
scious of his sickness alike of body and soul, 
but at length awoke to feel them both. 

Summoning a Protestant Christian physi- 
cian, he piteously begged him to heal him. 
The physician plainly told him the truth, 
saying, "If you have any preparation to 
make for death, now is the time to make it." 

At length, mortification began in one of 
his hands ; and as it slowly crept up along 
his arm, and neared his vitals, he pointed 



238 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

visitors to his decaying, loathsome body, 
saying, " God is making me a spectacle for 
all to behold and fear, that others may not 
do as I have done." His groans were dole- 
ful to hear. In vain did one and another 
Christian visitor point him to Christ as still 
willing to hear and save him, if he would 
but look to him. " Christ," he replied, " has 
turned his face away from me. My time of 
repentance is past. It is too late, too late ! " 
And in this state he closed his eyes in death, 
and passed to the tribunal of Him against 
whom he had so grievously sinned. 

" If we sin willfully after that we have 
received the knowledge of the truth, there 
remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a 
certain fearful looking-for of judgment and 
fiery indignation which shall devour the 
adversaries. He that despised Moses' law 
died without mercy under two or three wit- 
nesses: of how much sorer punishment. 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 239 



suppose ye, shall lie be thought worthy, who 
hath trodden under foot the Son of God, 
and hath counted the blood of the covenant, 
wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy 
thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit 
of grace ?" Of such a one Watts well 
says, — 

li What scenes of horror and of dread 
Await the sinner's dying bed! 
Death's terrors all appear in sight, 
Presages of eternal night. 

His sins in dreadful order rise, 
And fill his soul with sad surprise; 
Mount Sinai's thunders stun his ears, 
And not one ray of hope appears. 

Tormenting pangs distract his breast; 
Where'er he turns he finds no rest. 
Death strikes the blow — he groans and cries, 
And in despair and horror — dies." 



240 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



XXIL 



THE KOORDISH MISSIONARY. 
MONG the Koordish-speaking students 



gathered by the churches of Harpoot, 
to be trained in the theological seminary 
here for prosecuting their prospective mis- 
sionary work in Koordistan, was a young 
man, Kavme Ablahadian, a native of Cuttur- 
bul on the Tigris. 

Like most residents in that Babel town, he 
had the gift of tongues, readily speaking 
Turkish, Arabic, and Koordish, to which he 
soon added Armenian, and, subsequently, some 
knowledge of English. Though a zealous, 
warm-hearted adherent of evangelical truth, 
and burning with desire to prosecute the 
missionary work in the regions beyond his 




GRACE ILLUSTRATED . 241 

native borderland of Koordistan, he soon 
became convinced that he was not experi- 
mentally a Christian, and, with deep anxiety, 
asked, " What must I do to be saved?" 
Under the faithful instructions of the Har- 
poot pastor, himself a native of Hain£ in 
Koordistan, and so acquainted with the Koord- 
ish, he soon came out into the clear light 
of gospel liberty. His was a deep, old-style 
experience of something more than mere 
sentiment. His intellect enlightened by the 
teachings of the Bible, his sensibilities 
deeply moved by gospel manifestations of 
divine love, and his will completely subjected 
to divine direction, and fixed in purpose of 
service, he consecrated his whole being to 
the service of Christ. No one will imagine 
from this that he became at once, or has yet 
become, a perfect character, any more than 
do others here, and elsewhere, by a similar 
experience. 

16 



242 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED, 



Were it necessary to do so, I could point 
out marked deficiences, showing especially 
how feeble even a partially sanctified and 
confirmed Oriental will is, to stand firm in 
defense of a purpose which is assaulted by 
excited sensibilities ; but our present purpose 
leads not that way. 

During his course of study, he spent one 
winter vacation in Shemshem, a polyglot 
town in Koordistan, and succeeded in win- 
ning his way to some hearts which were 
hard to enter; and one in Sinamood, a ward 
of Harpoot, being prevented by his wife's 
illness from going to the more distant place. 
At his graduation, the people of Sinamood 
pressed their claim so forcibly, that, seeing 
the Koordish mission treasury poorly sup- 
plied with funds, he consented to remain 
with them a year, they assuming his entire 
support. But, being permitted to make a 
visit to his beloved Koordistan on condition 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 243 

that lie should not remain there, he kept his 
pledge in the letter, but broke it in spirit, 
by making a like promise to the little Prot- 
estant community in Redwan, one of the 
Koordish missionary stations of the Ar- 
menian churches. 

Among the mingled population of Ar- 
menians, Jacobites, Koords, Turks, and 
Yezidees in that dark center of Koordistan 
proper, the gospel had gained an entrance ; 
and a congregation of eighteen men, thirteen 
women, and twenty-two children, had sepa- 
rated themselves from the superstitions of 
their people, erected a little church, and, 
deprived of their former preacher (who had 
gone to another station), begged Kavme, to 
stay, saying, u We will -pay half of your 
salary now, and all by and by, and will build 
you a house. Do come! Do not leave us 
alone." The result was, that he hastened 
back, said " Good-by " to his city parish, 



244 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

and hurried off for Redwan^ — as great a 
descent externally as for a New York pastor 
to leave his fine mansion, and go to dwell in 
one of the "sod houses " of Dakota, with 
the added fact, that the contrast between the 
people of Harpoot and those of Redwan is 
little, if any, less than that between their 
dwellings. 

But not thus was he to remain at rest. 
A " call " followed him from the city of 
Diarbekir, which he at once laid before his 
people, who had meantime, self-moved, in- 
creased their half of his salary to four- 
sevenths. Their reply was, " The Diarbekir 
people need you very much; and we will 
lend you to them for a few months." He 
came ; but some of the Diarbekir people, on 
seeing him, almost repented the call. He 
was very unassuming, at times seeming 
almost to beg pardon of men for the offense 
of being among them. 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



245 



But a few weeks' experience changed all 
that feeling on the part of the people ; and, 
at the expiration of the allotted time, 
only a sense of honor and necessity made 
the city parish willing to return the loan. 
Said a hitherto somewhat phlegmatic 
brother, "I have listened for years to the 
learned, eloquent sermons of our pastor, 

Mr. , and they only pleased, without 

benefiting me ; but this man talks to me 
about myself, and the salvation which I 
need. He is doing my soul good." And so 
he was. Ah ! after all, the primary prepara- 
tion for a useful gospel ministry is a deep 
heart-experience of the power of the doc- 
trines of grace. This can vivify and clarify 
the sleepiest and muddiest brain, and ener- 
gize the feeblest, almost supplying that 
which is wanting, and setting it at work for 
Christ ; while without it the most resplendent 
talents can only please the ear, and inform 



246 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



the mind, leaving the heart unbenefited and 
unreached. 

But we found Kavme, ill at ease in his 
city parish. He longed to return once more 
to his humble Koordish congregation. And 
the way was providentially opened for him 
soon to do so. He goes fully purposed to be 
an earnest, self-denying, Christian missionary 
there. 

May God give him health and long life, 
and the needed wisdom and grace for carry- 
ing out his purpose ! Will not all the 
readers of this brief sketch unite with us 
in this petition. 



GBACE ILLUSTRATED. 247 



XXIIL 

THE LITTLE SYRIAN MAID. 
BY MISS M. E. WARFIELD. 

(From the Christian Mirror.) 

EAR S. S. Children", — Would you like 
to enter an upper room, where I went, a 
short time since, to the death-bed of one of 
our loved pupils ? She was lying, according 
to the custom of the people, upon the floor. 
The father, also upon the floor, was sitting at 
her head. The mother, assistant teacher, the 
pastor and wife, and a few other friends, 
were gathered around to watch the loved 
daughter, whose life was fast passing away. 

Her eyes were covered, and she lay per- 
fectly quiet; while the difficult breathing 
showed that she could not long remain. It 




248 GKACE ILLUSTRATED. 

was painful to witness the distortion of her 
bright face at every breath. We supposed 
she was entirely unconscious to all earthly 
things: but, after waiting a few moments, 
we uncovered her eyes ; and I said, " Sadie, 
do you know me ? Are you going to J esus ? " 
The dear child turned her eyes toward me, 
but was unable to utter a sound. 

No sign could she then give to show 
whether or not she was happy ; and soon her 
spirit took its flight, as we trust, to be with 
the Lord ; for, although we could then have 
no word from her lips, we mourn not for her. 
We believe she had given herself to Jesus, 
and is now happy with him. 

Shall I tell you something of this dear 
girl ? She came to us last year from Cuttur- 
bul, near Diarbekir. She was about fourteen 
years of age, quite small and uncomely in 
form, but with a bright face, and lustrous 
black eyes. But we soon found that her 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 249 



bright face was not always sunny ; for she 
had a very bad temper, and would often be- 
come angry at some word from her associates ; 
and then her sunny face would be darkly 
clouded. 

Kohar, our assistant teacher, often told us 
that Sadie was sometimes very troublesome, 
and even hateful to her associates. Much 
prayer was offered for this bright, wayward 
girl ; and, after a time, she was awakened by 
the Holy Spirit, and led to see her sinful- 
ness, and one sabbath day came to our* room 
to talk about her soul. She felt that she 
was a great sinner, and earnestly inquired 
what she should do to be saved. 

After we had explained to her the way of 
salvation, she felt that she could give her- 
self to Christ, believing that he would for- 
give her sins, and give her a new heart. A 
few days after this, she told us, with a beam- 
ing face, that she had given herself to 



250 GKACE ILLUSTRATED. 



Christ, that she gave her heart to him that 
sabbath day, and had since been very happy. 
Several times after this, she spoke of her joy 
and peace in Christ, and one day lingered 
at the close of a recitation, and requested 
me to give her some spiritual advice. I 
talked to her a few moments, when she 
looked up with a grateful smile, thanked me, 
and said, " I wish you would talk to me every 
day." 

Miss Seymour spoke to her especially 
about looking to Jesus for strength to con- 
quer her violent temper, and refrain from 
all angry words ; and we believe she did 
indeed seek and find help from him ; for, 
when she returned this year, she was much 
improved, and we feel that it was grace 
alone which had wrought such a change, that 
Kohar said of her, " She is very sweet this 
year." 

Some weeks after her return, she came to 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED . 251 



our room with a bright smile, to tell us of 
her love to Jesus, and ask us to pray that 
she might always live near to him, and be a 
blessing to others. 

Soon after this, she was taken violently 
sick, and suffered much for nearly six weeks. 
We visited her several times, and always 
found her groaning with pain, but apparently 
trusting in Jesus. She requested us to pray 
for her, and wished to be remembered in the 
prayers of her schoolmates also. 

Once I found her suffering greatly, and 
saying, "He will take me, he will take 
me." And when I said, " Sadie, do you 
wish to go ? " her face instantly brightened, 
and she said, " Oh, yes ! " — " But," said I, 
"you are a sinner. How can you go to 
heaven ? " 

She replied, " Yes : I am a great sinner, 
but Jesus will save me. It is only by Jesus, 
only by Jesus" 



252 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

At times she talked much of the precious- 
ness of Christ, the joy of heaven, and her 
confidence in her Saviour ; and I have never 
heard of any doubts of her acceptance, or 
fears of death, during the whole of her long 
sickness.. At one time she said, " Since 
Christ has died for me, why should I not 
trust him ? why should I fear death ? " 

One night she called her parents, and 
begged their forgiveness for all her unkind- 
ness and disobedience ; and at another time, 
when asked if she was not sad in view of 
death, she said, " I am not sad when think- 
ing of myself ; but I grieve for my parents. 
I know it will be hard for them to bury me 
here, and go home alone." 

Once she exclaimed, " I see the angels ! 
they are coming for me. 9 ' The day of her 
death, she was too weak to talk much ; but, 
when asked if she would like to have 
prayers, she immediately said, "Yes." 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 253 

Again, while suffering from intense pain, one 
asked, "Are you glad that the Lord has 
sent this upon you? " She said, " Oh, yes ! 
glory, glory to thee, O Lord ! " 

These were her last words. 

The next day we attended her funeral, 
and sang the sweet hymns, which Sadie had 
selected some days before, — " I want to be 
an angel," " Forever with the Lord," "I'm a 
pilgrim," " Come sing to me of heaven," 
and "Joyfully, joyfully." I doubt not you 
are all familiar with these same hymns, and 
perhaps often sing them, but not as we do 
here. Here they are sung in the Armenian 
language, and we have learned to enjoy them 
in this foreign tongue. 

We felt that it was truly appropriate to 
sing, " Joyfully, joyfully," and that we ought 
not to weep for her, but should rather rejoice 
that Jesus had taken her from all the trials 
of earth, and especially that he had per- 



254 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

mitted her to give such good evidence of a 
change of heart, and fitness for the bright 
mansions. 

And now, my dear young friends, may 
you all, like our dear Sadie, give your 
hearts to Jesus, ask him to make you his 
dear children, and give you strength to 
overcome all your faults, and grace to live 
for his glory. Give yourselves to Christ, ask 
him to guide you, and believe that he will do 
it. Do not be discouraged if you do not 
become like Jesus at once. Sadie did not 
immediately conquer, but was obliged to 
watch and pray as long as she lived, in order 
to keep down a*Qgry words and thoughts ; 
but Jesus helped her, and has now taken 
her to himself, and given her the crown prom- 
ised to those who overcome. 

And so, dear young friends, he will 
surely help you, if you daily ask him to ; 
and, if you cheerfully bear the cross here, he 
will give you the crown of life in heaven. 



GBACE ILLUSTRATED. 



255 



XXIV. 
MISS M. E. WARFIELD. 

N the 16th of February, 18T0, but a few 



weeks after penning the preceding let- 
ter, Miss Warfield followed her dear pupil, 
going up to wear " the crown of life in 
heaven." 

Hers was a brief, earnest, effective mis- 
sionary life of a little less than three years, 
spent in the Harpoot Female Seminary. 

When the call came to engage in this 
work, though shrinking from its responsibili- 
ties, yet thinking the Master called, she 
cheerfully responded, " Here am I," and 
leaving the school which she was teaching in 
Arlington, Mass., prepared to bid farewell 
to her widowed mother and only sister, and 




256 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

go so soon as an associate should be secured. 
The proper person not being found so 
speedily as she had hoped, she fixed a time, 
delay beyond which in finding an associate 
should be to her evidence that she was mis- 
taken in supposing her own call to be from 
the Master. 

Telling her purpose to Him whom she 
loved to call the dear Saviour, she calmly 
waited that final tenth day, the evening of 
which providentially ratified her call by the 
news that Miss Hattie Seymour of Rochester, 
N.Y., would soon be ready to join her in her 
chosen work. Henceforth, whatever the 
thorns which beset her path, or the darkness 
which enshrouded it, in a work the peculiar 
difficulties and trials of which none in the 
home land, and few, if any, in the foreign 
field, besides the young ladies themselves, 
can fully appreciate, she never again gave 
place to a doubt that she had been divinely 



GEACE ILLUSTRATED. 257 

called, nor lost, for a moment, her cheerful 
zeal in doing her Master's bidding. She 
felt sure that he was with her, and would 
be to the end, though little suspecting how 
soon that end of earthly service was to come. 

Her quick mind and enthusiastic earnest- 
ness secured for her a speedy and ready 
command of the language ; and almost from 
the first day in the field she was a practical, 
efficient missionary. Her labor for her 
pupils was a cheerful service of love to them 
and her Saviour, — one in which no yielding 
to weariness or discouragement was allowed. 
The result was the condensation of an 
unusual amount of effective work into those 
brief months. Not content with their sum- 
mer labors in the seminary, she and her 
associate devoted most of the winters to 
visiting their pupils in their places of labor, 
going for this purpose on horseback, through 
rain and snow, from outstation to outstation, 

17 



258 GKACE ILLUSTRATED. 

some of them several days' journey distant. 
The return from these missionary tours 
usually brought a generous supply of cheer 
for the home-circle ; for hers was a hopeful, 
buoyant spirit, not prone to look on the 
cheerless side of missionary life, but eagerly 
gathering up all which could energize her- 
self or others for the work in hand. In 
these journeys, for the sake of economy in 
using sacred funds, she cheerfully bore some 
privations, which some of us older — shall I 
say wiser? — tourists have felt constrained 
to remand to the experiences of more youth- 
ful days. Eeturning from the last of these 
tours, made to several villages on Harpoot 
plain, she was taken with measles, which 
was prevailing in some of the places visited. 
Having a skillful physician at hand, we had 
no fear for the result, especially as the dis- 
ease was in a mild form ; but when, on the 
sixth day, typhoid-fever set in in a violent 
form, we felt that there was little hope. 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



259 



Happily she herself had felt, clays before, 
that her end was near, and, while yet in full 
possession of her reason, had left her dying- 
messages to her mother and other home- 
friends. 

During the delirium of typhoid, she im- 
agined herself called upon to suffer the 
martyr's death at the stake. Yet not even 
then did faith or courage fail; and it was 
touching to hear her exclaim, " Dear Saviour, 
thou knowest that I am weak, but do give 
me strength. I am willing to bear even this 
for thee." Recognizing her associate stand- 
ing by her bedside, she exclaimed with all 
the earnestness of reality, " Go back, Hattie, 
go back ! It is enough for one of us to die. 
You must stay, and bear witness for Christ." 

The ruling thought was strong in death ; 
and her whole anxiety was for the work 
and the people whom she came to bless, to 
imaginary companies of whom she was, from 



260 GKACE ILLUSTRATED. 



time to time, making earnest appeals on the 
one great subject. 

And thus she went home to hear, no 
doubt, the welcome plaudit, " Well done ! " 
and receive from her dear Saviour's hand 
the crown of that martyrdom she had con- 
sciously endured for him. 

Her grave made the sixteenth in our little 
hillside cemetery ; the first adult to lie 
there having been Mrs. Williams (Miss Bar- 
bour), who, though nine years before too 
modestly declining the post of first teacher in 
the seminary, had been providentially led 
hither to find a resting-place. And that 
burial-ground is not a sad place, — is really 
a " God's acre." Of all who lie there, we 
have the joyous assurance that they have 
entered into the rest which remains for the 
people of God. 

What if their dust must, for a brief time, 
sleep far from that of their kindred and 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 261 



friends, among a people of a strange speech ! 
This seeming isolation and loneliness will 
but make the angels watch all the more 
tenderly over it, till that day when He shall 
come to re-animate, and gather home, his 
chosen ones. 

4 4 Asleep in Jesus, blessed sleep! 

From which none ever wake to weep, — 
A calm and undisturbed repose, 
Unbroken by the last of foes. 

Asleep in Jesus — oh, for me 

May such a blissful refuge be ! 
Securely shall my ashes lie, 

And wait the summons from on high." 



262 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED • 



XXV. 

THE MAN WHO MUST PREACH. 

QOME time in the early days of our 
missionary life, a guest brought with 
him to our home, a young man, some twenty 
years of age, a native of the city of Egin, 
in the north-west part of our field. His 
large head, and somewhat larger self-assur- 
ance, with a good measure of aggressive 
force, and earnestly-avowed Protestantism, 
attracted our attention. 

It was quite evident that he aspired to 
be a servant in the ministerial sense ; for, 
complacently requesting the use of a small 
prophet's chamber, he, after a few days of 
seclusion, issued from it, manuscript in hand, 
with an invitation for himself to preach it 



GBACE ILLUSTRATED. 263 



from our pulpit on the following sabbath. 
This was our first acquaintance with Simon 
Deradoorian. 

Soon after, he presented himself as a can- 
didate for the theological seminary, to 
which he was received, and graduated with 
honor four years later, being remarkable 
chiefly for an excessive scrupulousness, and 
.a strong tendency to asceticism ; this last 
manifesting itself in the eating of some 
kinds of food which, though fitted, perhaps, 
to "bring under the body," are not fitted to 
develop a refined taste. 

His earnestness and self-assurance did not 
fail; but the latter was somewhat discour- 
aged by occasional exposure to ridicule, in 
his attempts to indulge it at the expense 
of those about him ; as when a letter of pri- 
vate rebuke and exhortation to one of his 
teachers for a supposed fault was quietly 
passed along to be read and laughed at by 
the assembled students. 



264 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

Alas that in the forceful application of 
the truthless as trite maxim, " Great men are 
always modest," the great, arrogant world 
so often blasts the blossoms of growing 
greatness ! But the blossoming genius of 
our theologue was proof against even the 
withering influence of the " dread laugh " of 
the little world in which he moved, and 
upon which he looked down with the calm 
serenity of conscious superiority. 

And the little world meanwhile repaid 
him with a certain sincere respect for his 
talents, and the ascetic rigor of his ad- 
herence to what he supposed to be right. 

Gifted with a somewhat commanding 
presence, a good voice, and ready command 
of language, and giving due attention to the 
cultivation of the two latter, he was able, in 
his senior year, to take pre-eminence among 
his classmates as a preacher. 

On graduating, he went to Temran, a 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 265 



town among the mountains, to the north-east 
of Harpoot, in the then newly occupied 
district of Geghi. Though he there had 
no regular audience or place of worship, and 
so no opportunity to cultivate his preaching- 
talent, except occasionally in efforts to 
control crowds of excited hostile men, yet, 
in this primary evangelistic work, his natural 
earnestness, and his warm-hearted piety, 
found new nourishment, and opportunity to 
grow, and he profited by them. Those were 
the days of mobs in that wild district, in 
the midst of which he developed a, to us, 
new trait of character, — that of Christian 
mildness and forbearance, such as to win 
some of his bitterest enemies, and among 
them poor old Sarah, a sketch of whom is 
next given. She was one of a mob that 
threw his books and other possessions into 
the street, and beat him ; but, seeing how 
patiently he bore it all, she exclaimed, " Poor 



266 GEACE ILLUSTEATED. 



young man, he don't deserve such treat- 
ment," and from that hour began to seek 
and love the truth for which he suffered. 
His brief stay there laid the foundation of 
a prosperous work, which is on the point of 
resulting in the formation of the second 
church in the' district. 

But here,, as elsewhere, qualities and talents 
such as his are sure to win reputation in 
more important centers ; and he soon received 
and accepted a call to Harpoot. 

His course here was very brief ; for he 
came only to die, being seized with typhus- 
fever ere he had preached a single sermon. 
But this new summons was received with 
the quiet confidence of one who knew in 
whom he had trusted. When told what 
would be the issue of his disease, and asked 
whether he felt afraid of death, his quiet 
reply was, " Why should the Christian fear 
to die ? " And thus, in the vigor of his 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



267 



early manhood, and the beginning of his use- 
fulness here, he passed away, to respond, we 
doubt not, to a call to enter upon a higher, 
wider sphere of usefulness in some other 
world. 

" Lift not thou the wailing voice, 
Weep not, 'tis a Christian dieth : 
Up where blessed saints rejoice, 
Ransomed now, the spirit flieth. 
High in heaven's own light he dwelleth; 
Full the song of triumph swelleth, 
Freed from earth*and earthly failing : 
Lift for him no voice of wailing." 



268 GRACE ILLUSTRATED, 



XXVI. 

OLD SARAH. 

gHE lived for seventy years in spiritual 
darkness in Temran, the town in which 
labored Simon Deradoorian, and then re- 
ceived her first ray of light from seeing the 
patience with which he endured the abuse 
of a mob, whom he blessed while they were 
beating him, and destroying his property. 

She had gone with the crowd to see the 
" infidel preacher " beaten, — the man who 
did not worship the saints and the Holy 
Virgin, and who, of course, must be bad and 
behave very badly. But when she saw a 
meek, gentle Christian, who joyfully suffered 
for the Master's sake, her natural sense of 
justice was outraged by the violence of her 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 269 



companions ; and she began to love the 
"good young man." 

When Simon came to Harpoot, and died 
here, old Sarah attached herself to his suc- 
cessor, who, fortunately, was a man of kin- 
dred spirit. 

* A hard task had she before her in the 
effort to be a Christian ; for, during all her 
adult years, she had been known, even in 
that wild, rough region, as a virago, — the 
terror of all who came in contact with her, 
men as well as women ; for, in her terrible 
outbursts of passion, she hesitated not to 
enforce hard words with harder blows, when 
necessary for her purpose. 

But, having made up her mind to serve 
Christ, she went to work with characteristic 
earnestness. Her little grand-daughter was 
at once put into the Protestant school ; and 
when the new preacher and his wife came, 
taking the little girl upon her shoulders, 



270 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

she waded with them through the deep 
snows of that mountain-region to introduce 
them to the people at their homes. Happily, 
they were both earnest, spiritually minded 
people ; and it was old Sarah's delight thus 
to go with them from house to house, and 
hear the " old, old story" told over and 

"over again. The Bible was to her like a 
gushing fountain of pure cold water to one 
perishing with thirst. ' She never wearied 
of drinking in its sweet words. 

Once, hearing the preacher read Christ's 
discourse with Nicodemus, she exclaimed, 
" Saviour, I am unclean ! wash me with thy 
blood. There is no other way to be saved." 

She seemed literally to hunger and thirst 
for the bread and the water of life ; and, 
when the preacher went to visit another* 
town, she was impatient for his return, 

. saying, " Why does he not come?" and 
requesting those about her to talk to her 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 271 

of spiritual things. " Ah ! " she exclaimed, 
"would that I had heard these things 
sooner ! " 

To the amazement of all about her, who 
wondered at the change, and admired the 
power of that gospel which was able to 
produce it, she became as remarkable for 
sweetness as she had before been for vio- 
lence of temper. 

Once only did the old nature get the 
better of the new, and then in a prayer- 
meeting, to hold which, some members of 
the Palu church had come three days' jour- 
ney. A nephew of hers rising to leave in 
prayer-time, with the exclamation, " I don't 
accept your groank" (religion), she gave 
him a vigorous box on the ear, exclaiming, 
" You call prayer a groanJc, do you ? " 

But not long had she to fight the good 
fight of faith, only one winter's snows 
through which to wade to guide the preacher 



272 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

in his household visits. With the opening 
spring she sickened ; and it was soon appar- 
ent that she was near her end. To the 
last, she clung to the place of prayer, saying, 
go she must. To some who once tried to 
dissuade her from going, she replied, " I 
must and will go to hear God's voice once 
more." 

But three days before her death, she 
induced two men to take each an arm, and 
lead her to the loved place once more, for 
the last time. 

The stoiy of her death tells nothing of 
rapturous exultation, nothing of transporting 
visions of heavenly glory ; but we doubt not 
she found an angel convoy in waiting to 
convey her thither. When wearied, and at 
times almost disheartened, by the worldli- 
ness and ingratitude of many for whom we 
labor, the memory of poor old Sarah wading 
through those winter snows, and trying to 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 273 



breathe her last breath in the atmosphere 
of prayer, cheers us with new confidence 
in the promise, "Lo, I am with you al- 
way." 



ft 



274 GEACE ILLUSTEATED. 



XXVII. 

b£go, the wife of bono. 

BY EEY. H. N. BAENUM, D.D. 

JN the year 1868 twelve Protestant women 
in Palu, along with their family cares, 
seemed each a few Armenian women and 
girls as pupils, hoping in this way to bring 
them into contact with the Bible. They 
rightly judged that this was one of the 
surest ways of doing good; for they them- 
selves had recently learned to read, and, in 
learning, their minds had become awakened, 
and their hearts drawn to the truth. 

Among these pupils was a bright married 
woman, less than thirty years of age, whose 
name was Bego. She was much interested 
in reading, and made rapid progress. After 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



275 



a little, she removed, with her husband, to 
Temran, a village in the Geghi district, 
among the Anti-Taurus Mountains. This 
district is three days' journey from Palu, 
and surrounded on all sides by wild Koords. 
Soon after reaching Temran, following the 
example of the Palu sisters, Bego opened 
her own house for the gratuitous instruction 
of such women and girls as were willing to 
come. There were very few such at that 
time, it is true ; for this was a new thing in 
that region, and most persons regarded read- 
ing by females as very unwomanly. But 
it was the beginning of female education 
in a place which has already sent three 
girls to the female seminary in Harpoot. 
We heard of this school, and rejoiced in 
it as the shining of the light in a very 
dark place. None of us, however, saw the 
teacher ; for she and her husband were 
faithful adherents of the old Armenian 
Church, and kept aloof from* us. 



276 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



Bego's love of reading led her to study 
the Bible ; and, as she studied it, the truth 
gradually dawned upon her mind, and she 
and her husband became convinced of the 
errors of the Armenian Church, and joined 
the feeble band of Protestants in Temran. I 
well remember the time when I first saw 
her. It was on a visit to Temran, in 1870. 
I was a guest of the preacher, when she 
timidly came in, and was introduced to me 
as the woman who was helping a few of her 
sex to read. She was not then openly com- 
mitted to the truth; but, after a few months, 
she came out clearly and decidedly on the 
Lord's side. 

Two years later (in 1872), in the midst 
of endeavors to do good, she was prostrated 
by a most painful attack of rheumatism, 
from which there is no hope of her recovery. 
On a recent visit to Temran, I called upon 
her. I was not surprised that she had rheu- 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 277 



matism. The wonder is, considering the 
damp, cold houses the people live in, that 
so many of them escape this disease. The 
house which Bego occupies is the ordinary 
one-story building, six or seven feet high, 
with mud walls, flat, earthen roof, and the 
bare ground for the floor. On one sid^, the 
whole length of the room, both the wall and 
the roof are so dilapidated, that they do not 
join each other, but leave an open space 
from three to eight inches wide. The room 
is bare of furniture, — a cheerless, comfort- 
less place. Somebody has been sufficiently 
thoughtful, after she has lain for two years 
with her poor, hard mattress on the ground, 
to make a rude, wooden frame, and place 
her bed on that. At the foot of the bed, 
on the wall, hangs the recently issued roll 
of daily Scripture promises in Armenian, 
sent to her by one of the missionary ladies ; 
and during the long, weary hours of the 



278 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

day, she comforts herself with these precious 
words. Her husband and little boy are kept 
at home from their shoemaking with sore 
eyes. As we enter, she appears a little 
embarrassed ; for, with a woman's sensitive- 
ness, she shrinks from the exhibition of pov- 
erty which her house too clearly manifests. 
We have seen many such dwellings before, 
and at once put her at her ease. A mattress 
is spread for us on the ground, with a soiled, 
tattered cover, — a very uninviting seat ; 
but it is probably the best bed in the house. 
Before we left, we felt that we were sitting 
in heavenly places. 

Here lies a woman in the prime of life. 
She is by nature unusually ambitious and 
enterprising. For two years, she has been 
the victim of a most distressing disease. 
At times her pain is so severe, that the 
approach of a person to her bedside brings 
from her an involuntary shriek, through the 



GHACE ILLUSTRATED. 



279 



fear of being touched. Her muscles have 
become contracted and rigid. She can not 
move hand or foot. Her hands are so drawn 
in, and bent, that the fingers nearly touch 
the arm. She has not even the power to 
drive away the flies that swarm upon her 
face. She lies thus perfectly helpless, racked 
with pain, and able to sleep but little, even 
at night. Oh, how heavily the weary, weary 
hours and days and weeks and months must 
move along ! Is patience possible in the 
midst of such suffering ? How many could 
endure to lie helpless, and often for hours 
alone, like this poor woman, even if there 
were no suffering connected with it ? Sim- 
ply the flies and the fleas would make many 
people well-nigh frantic. But in the coun- 
tenance before us is an expression which 
implies something more than mere patience. 
You do not need to ask whether she is 
happy. Joy beams through all her features, 



280 GRACE ILLUSTRATED, 



■ — a heavenly peace, triumphant over suffer- 
ing, such as is seldom seen in a human face. 
Yet happiness is so incompatible with such 
a wretched condition, without any allevia- 
tion, and with no hope of release, except by 
death, which may be many years in coming, 
that one can scarcely avoid asking the ques- 
tion which I did, "Can you be happy in 
this state ? " 

" Oh, yes ! " she replied, " I am very happy. 
My soul is full of peace and joy. Jesus is 
present with me, and, although I suffer 
much pain, I want nothing more. Except 
for Christ's presence and blessing, I never 
could endure this. I am content to wait 
upon him, and let him do as he pleases. 
His will is the best." 

This testimony was to me more assuring 
than all the philosophical demonstrations 
of the truth of Christianity. The Temran 
preacher says that he often goes to the bed- 



GEACE ILLUSTRATED. 281 

side of this poor but blessed woman to have 
his own spiritual nature refreshed, and his 
faith strengthened. Bego was to have been 
a Bible-reader in Temran ; but I left her, 
feeling that she is doubtless doing vastly 
more for her Master by illustrating the 
power of the gospel to sustain one in trial, 
than she possibly could have done by the 
most active service, and possibly more than 
many a preacher or missionary. Seldom 
has a sermon impressed me so deeply, and I 
trust profitably, as the quiet, heavenly joy 
that beamed from the face of this humble 
disciple* 



282 GRACE ILLUSTRATED . 



XXVIII. 

THE AGED AUCTIONEER. 

JpAMILY BIBLES are of modern mis- 
sionary introduction into Turkey homes, 
and so don't tell when the angels brought 
the ancestors of the rising generation. 

On the plain, flat tombstone, then, of our 
patriarchal pilgrim is inscribed only, " Died 
in 1869 ; " for he himself used to say, as do 
most old people in this land, " God only 
knows when I was born." But, by the aid 
of certain historical landmarks located by 
him in his boyhood, we were able to infer, 
that some time during the reign of the fa- 
mous but unfortunate sultan, Abdul Hamet, 
probably about the year 1780, the comely 
form of baby Garabed (" Forerunner ") first 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 283 

gladdened the eyes of his father Harootune 
(" Resurrection ") and his, to us, nameless 
mother, in their home in Gaban Maden, then 
the capital of the Harpoot pashalic. 

His ancestral patronymic, Ockle Deryesian, 
which is not Armenian, but Turkish, and 
means " sea of wisdom," shows the estima- 
tion in which the family had been held by 
the Turks ; but, as this reputation may have 
been the reward of paternal sharpness in 
auctioneering, we can not, unhesitatingly, 
adopt the old style, and assert that they 
were "poor, but honest." Honest, accord- 
ing to the Scripture, or even the Occidental 
standard, they surely were not ; for no auc- 
tioneers are so in this land. 

Young Garabed had fallen upon troublous 
times, even for troubled Turkey. His youth 
was terrified by the terrible janizaries, more 
pitiless in these then wild regions than in 
Constantinople, where the head of a " Chris- 



284 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

tian dog " was cheaper than even that of the 
real animal. 

His manhood saw the revolt against the 
attempt of Sultan Mahmoud to levy sol- 
diers to supply the place of the exterminated 
janizaries, when the terrible Reshid Pasha 
made the streets of Maden run with the 
blood of hundreds, and, to increase the 
popular terror, impaled living revolters upon 
the different highways leading from the 
city, and pommeled the heads of others in 
huge stone mortars. 

Older inhabitants still tell how they saw 
seventy heads cut off by a single yatagan, 
and the trunks thrown into the Euphrates ; 
and that, on the third day after his impale- 
ment, one poor wretch transferred his girdle 
to his head to protect it from the rain. 

It is an interesting fact, that from such 
scenes of horror, repeated in one form and 
another through his entire youth and early 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 285 



manhood, Garabed came out with his natural 
sensibilities unblunted, his heart still tender 
and sensitive as a little child's to sights or 
tales of suffering. It was this which made 
him eager to visit at once any sick person 
to whom he hoped to do any good, and 
which made him ever a welcome, because 
sympathizing visitor, to the sick and suffer- 
ing Mohammedans, as well as to nominal 
Christians. 

When the suppression of the revolt, and 
the transfer of the capital to Harpoot, began 
for Maden that work of decay which has 
reduced it from a flourishing city to a 
comparatively insignificant village, Garabed 
removed to this city, and continued the 
business which procured for him his sur- 
name, Talal (" Auctioneer "). 

When we read the inspired description 
of all our rising race, that " they go astray 
as soon as they be born, speaking lies," and 



286 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

remember that our Talal was not only- 
brought up in the Orient, and with no Bible 
or religious teachings of any kind, and that 
auctioneers in this land go from house to 
house, and man to man, telling what pre- 
ceding bids have been, and trying to get 
bigger ones, and that often the amount of 
their own commissions depends upon the 
amount of successful lying, we can easily 
imagine that our prospective saint had one 
very steep and long hill, " Difficulty," to 
ascend, before reaching the city whose gates 
exclude all liars. 

Those who have not breathed from in- 
fancy an atmosphere of falsehood, whose 
very bones have not been pervaded and 
almost disintegrated by its poisonous efflu- 
via, can never truly sympathize with the 
feebleness of those who, born, and having 
long dwelt, in this valley of the shadow 
of death, awake, at length, to an effort to 



GKACE ILLUSTRATED. 287 

escape from it, and rise to the pure air and 
crystal light of truth. 

Then, too, the position of nominal Chris- 
tians in this land, crushed for centuries 
beneath grinding Moslem oppression, is fitted 
to excite and strengthen a spirit of greed 
and parsimony, a "get-all-you-can, keep-all- 
you-get " disposition, which is second only 
to falsehood in its demoralizing influence on 
the soul. When it is remembered that our 
hero lived under the full power of these 
demoralizing influences, daily pursuing his 
business of auctioneering, for more than 
threescore years and ten, we may rely upon 
our readers to believe and bear in mind, 
without further repetition of the fact by us, 
that w^hen, on the verge of his second child- 
hood, poor old Talal first read the gospel 
terms, and learned, that, to be saved, he 
must first undo his life's work, he felt, and 
felt to the last day of his Christian pilgrim- 



288 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

age, that his was a hard task, — one which 
only divine strength could enable him to 
complete. It will easily be believed that 
we, who thought we saw the stragglings 
of the new principle of Christian life within 
him, felt called upon to watch over and 
warm and nurse the poor old patient, much 
as a tender nurse would a cholera or typhoid 
patient just rising from the gates of death. 
We fed him carefully with the sincere milk 
of the Word, laid no very heavy burdens 
upon him, put his Christian integrity to no 
hard, rude tests, and hoped, to the last, that 
he was slowly fitting for those mansions 
which nothing unclean shall ever enter. 

It was in 1855, on the arrival of Mr. 
Dunmore in Harpoot, that old Talal gained 
his first idea of simple, pure gospel truth, 
separated from its muddy admixture in the 
dead tongue and deader ritual of the Arme- 
nian Church. 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 289 

He at once bought a primer, and learned 
to read, and, by his success, furnished a text 
for many a profitable sermon to the old, on 
their ability and duty to learn to read God's 
word ; for the old man, who, for so many 
years had cried his wares through the 
"streets of the capital, was known to almost 
everybody throughout the pashalic. And, 
having learned to read, he put his Testa- 
ment and hymn-book, and, later still, a 
little book of prayers, into his bosom, from 
which he never removed them, except for 
sleep or reading, till his dying-day. And 
go past his little variety-shop when we 
might, ■ — for, beginning the Christian life, 
he left off auctioneering as a business, — 
we saw him, if not serving a customer, serv- 
ing himself from his bosom stores. 

Unfortunately, his wife was too near a 
relative to her of poor old Job's or Socrates' 
home to encourage or help him at all in his 

19 



290 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

Christian pilgrimage: so he kept plodding 
on alone. 

There was one employment for which, by 
his tall, erect, manly form, and his graceful 
bearing, as well as the respect felt for him 
by all, Armenians and Turks alike, he was 
peculiarly fitted, and in which he took both 
pride and delight, — that of being guide and 
body-guard to escort the missionary ladies 
going to hold female prayer-meetings in 
different and distant parts of the city. The 
delight came in, when, on arriving at the 
place of meeting, and carefully tying the 
donkey in a safe place, his age and known 
simplicity of character secured him admit- 
tance to the meetings themselves, no one 
objecting. 

He apparently loved the place of prayer 
as well as did the good old deacon in War- 
ren, Me., who, being asked how many were 
present at a certain meeting, replied, " Two, 



GBACE ILLUSTRATED . 291 



Jesus and I; and we had a blessed time." 
He was seldom absent, never, except from 
illness ; and when the feebleness of age 
bowed his tall form, and a local injury made 
it painful for him to sit, it was affecting to 
see him, in summer's heat and winter's cold, 
slowly and painfully, but with radiant face, 
making his way to the sanctuary, leaning 
upon his staff. We miss him sadly from his 
familiar place at the foot of the pulpit-stairs, 
so nearly beneath the sanctuary droppings, 
that no one else cares to fill the vacant 
place. When he could no longer walk as 
escort to the female prayer-meetings, we, at 
his request, provided him with a donkey to 
ride ; and thus, up nearly to the time of his 
last brief illness, he enjoyed his coveted 
privilege. Never but once did any one 
venture, in his presence, to offer any dis- 
respect to his protegees; and then he at 
once put himself in the path of the drunken 
Turkish soldier, and turned him aside. 



292 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



In spirit and manner, he was a born and 
trained servant, such a one as our republi- 
can soil can not produce, nor our equality- 
loving citizens train, on any soil. The 
charge, that we missionaries spoil all our 
servants — or must I be more Occidental, 
and call them help? — by teaching them 
such republican notions that we serve rather 
than they, is, I fear, true in all cases except 
this one of Garabed, who came to our hands 
too old to be cured of any ways which were 
not anti-gospel. "On my head," was his 
uniform reply to every expressed wish, with 
a final " Any thing more ? " at leaving, even 
when, as at times, he meant to have his own 
way, which was only in those very few cases 
in which he was sure he knew better than 
we how a thing ought to be done. 

There are some vices — or must we call 
them virtues in such cases? — which even 
the gospel don't cure, but only renders them 



GBACE ILLUSTRATED. 



293 



more inveterate. A conscientious, Christian 
bigot, one who means to compel all mankind 
to believe and do just right, and get to 
heaven in spite of themselves, is the most 
intolerable of all nuisances, one which can 
be expressed by but one word, — pope. 

Now, happily, our Talal's bigotry, if such 
it can be called, didn't touch at all the 
domain of religion, and didn't reach the 
area of other people's activities. He only 
silently maintained sometimes his right to 
do his employers' work in his own way. He 
had, for instance, no respect for our fasti- 
dious prejudice against drinking from the 
same vessel with that "noblest of animals," 
the horse ; and so, in spite of all our protes- 
tations, he continued to water horses, mules, 
and donkeys from our fountain bucket. 
This he continued to do till despair quick- 
ened our wits into curing one vice by 
another ; and, appealing to his yet uncured 



294 



GEACE ILLUSTEATED. 



love of money, we said, " Yes, it is easier to 
water the animals there : so we will forbid 
you no more. Go on, then, only letting us 
know how many bucketsfull they drink, 
and you shall have it for a piaster a bucket." 
The horses and we never again drank from 
the same vessel. 

The old man was apparently inveterately 
addicted to the Oriental habit of smoking ; 
and, while telling him it was harmful, we 
could not find it in our hearts to insist that 
he discard his pipe, except on our own 
premises, and particularly in the stable, 
which was then beneath our house. 

But the good old man was sure he knew 
better than we that smoking was good for 
him, and, moreover, couldn't be harmful to 
our stable ; and surely he who loved us so 
well could never do so naughty a thing as 
to set fire to our property. And so the 
dangerous habit was slyly indulged in the 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 295 



forbidden place, and no suspicious snuffings 
of ours, and declarations that there was 
the smell of tobacco-smoke, could convince 
Mm of the fact, till one day I scented out 
the yet burning pipe hid in a corner of the 
building. The offending thing was, of 
course, punished by being thrown into the 
street, and its master bidden to reflect on his 
part of the sin in thus deceiving us. This 
brief sermon on his besetting sin did its 
work ; and he went home solemnly vowing to 
cut off the offending right hand. And he 
did it. Much to our surprise, he never 
smoked again, but became, from that day, an 
anti-tobacco apostle. Such was his zeal, that 
he composed a poem, copies of which he had 
written out, and put up in the two city 
churches, where others might read, and 
profit by his experience, when he should be 
gone. We give a nearly word-for-word 
translation of it, hoping that its wider pub- 



296 GBACE ILLUSTBATED. 



lication may do good where the old man 
never expected it. 

44 For many years tobacco's slave y 
To it I've service done : 
Of money much I wasted have, 
Advantage gaining none. 

E'en to old age, from boyhood's days, 

I tribulation bore, 
Alas, for those my foolish ways I 

But now my slavery's o'er. 

O boys ! now fix your eyes on me, 

And to my words give heed : 
You yet from it are wholly free ; 

Don't touch, don't smell, the weed. 

And brethren, you who love the stuff, 
And it habitually do puff, 
To your own selves you damage do ; 
Try, gain the victory, I beg you. 

Why will you squander money so? 

Break up all those chibouques t 
And cigarettes are worthless too : 

Spend money for good works* 



GEACE ILLUSTRATED. 297 



This my brief life is nearly o 7 er, 
Soon shall I leave this earthy shore ; 
Thus, as I to my fathers go, 
This my last counsel I leave you." 
(Signed) Talal Garabed. 

I have read somewhere a statement, that, 
in 1867, one religious denomination in the 
United States paid two million dollars for 
tobacco used by them, and left their mis- 
sionary treasury seventy-six thousand dol- 
lars in debt. 

Would that some one had given the sta- 
tistics for other denominations! But one 
thing is sure. The Master keeps the ac- 
count in his ledger ; and if some Christians 
who spend more on tobacco in defiling God's 
air with its smoke, and — oh, tell it not in 
Gath ; for not even infidel Turks do that — 
his earth with their nasty expectorations, 
than they pay for supporting the gospel at 
home and abroad, don't blush at meeting 



298 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



old Garabed in those pure mansions, it must 
be because divine compassion takes away 
there the power of shame for the follies and 
sins of earth. 

The poor old man had one lifelong grief 
in the fact, that, in his home, he was alone in 
trying to live the Christian life. His wife, 
as before intimated, scolded him for his 
Protestant ways ; his daughters were mar- 
ried to men (one of them a leading man 
in the city) who were far from the truth; 
and, of his two sons, the elder, in his tall 
manly figure the image of his father, had 
early gone to Constantinople as groom to 
the British ambassador, where he led any 
thing but a sober life ; while the youngest, 
the Benjamin of the family, saddened his 
father's heart for a time by his vicious 
ways, and finally almost broke it by leav- 
ing him in his old age, and running away 
to the capital. 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 299 



But these sorrows seemed only to make 
the poor old pilgrim cling the more closely 
to his hymn-book, his Testament, and his 
Saviour ; developing more fully his child- 
like simplicity of Christian character. A 
sort of shrinking diffidence seemed to grow 
with his years and his Christian growth. 
Though possessing naturally quite a fine, 
sonorous voice, such was his apparent timid- 
ity in public prayer, that, when he " took 
part" in a meeting, the part became practi- 
cally the whole to the rest of us, since, 
hearing not a word, we could only say 
amen in our hearts to the many good peti- 
tions he was supposed to offer. This was, 
in part, no doubt due to the sudden transi- 
tion from the read, ritualistic church-service 
of threescore years and ten, in which he had 
been only a hearer and spectator, to the 
voluntary simple forms of Protestant wor- 
ship. 



300 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



As, however, he was elsewhere fearless 
and outspoken, we at one time hoped to 
make him useful as a traveling preacher, 
crying gospel-wares all abroad in his old 
auctioneer tones. But the attempt proved 
a complete failure. On his return from his 
first circuit, when asked what he had 
preached to the people, he replied, "Bak 
che gah, masoonk che gah, surpotes pare- 
hosootune che gah" ("There are no fasts, 
there are no relics, and no intercession of 
the saints "). And such had, in fact, been 
the substance of his crying aloud. Rescued 
in old age from the darkness of a system 
which made fastings, relic-worship, and call- 
ing on the saints the substance of Christian 
duty, and entering again among those still 
similarly benighted, his first impulse was to 
cry out against the clouds which were ob- 
scuring the Sun of righteousness. So we 
concluded that the good old man could 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED . 



301 



preach Christ best by humbly living him at 
home. And this he continued to do, feebly 
and stammeringly at times, indeed, but still 
preaching him alike to all, both Mohamme- 
dans and nominal Christians, till at length, 
bowed by the weight of almost fourscore 
years and ten, he betook himself to his little 
upper room, and lay down upon his humble 
couch to witness for him once more by a 
peaceful Christian death. Yes, peaceful, 
full of peace : that's the word to tell all 
the story. As in life, so in death, there 
were no raptures, no exultings, but only a 
trustful, tranquil waiting for the Master's 
coming. 

He loved to think and talk of the crystal 
walls, the pearly gates, and the golden streets ; 
but he did it in much the same way as a sick 
child would talk of getting well, and going 
home once more. 

He craved the privilege of burial, not in 



302 GBACE ILLUSTRATED. 



Oriental style, but in a coffin, and begged us 
to sing at the grave, — 

* i Joyfully, joyfully onward I move, 
Bound to the land of bright spirits above: 
Angelic choristers sing as I come, 
Joyfully, joyfully haste to thy home I 
Soon with my pilgrimage ended below, 
Home to the land of bright spirits I'll go: 
Pilgrim and stranger no more shall I roam, 
Joyfully, joyfully resting at home." 

His wish was gratified, and, on the day of 
his burial, a larger crowd than at any funeral 
here before or since gathered at the Protes- 
tant church to do honor to the man whom 
all had known, and, in spite of his weaknesses, 
known only to respect and love. And, as we 
gazed upon his peaceful face, we thought of 
him as indeed joyfully resting at home. 

At the head of the coffin sat his first-born, 
Jacob, who had returned from the capital in 
time to be welcomed by the old man's glad, 



GBACE ILLUSTRATED. 



303 



warm embrace before he lay down to die. 
Since his father's death, he has begun to 
attend the Protestant service occasionally. 
Will not all who read this simple story offer 
at least one earnest petition, that both he and 
the yet absent Benjamin may return to their 
heavenly Father with the penitent prodi- 
gal's confession and prayer, and follow their 
father in the way to heaven? 



304 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



XXIX. 
PILGRIM ANNA. 
BOUT four years after the coming of 



Garabed, "the Aged Auctioneer," in 
Maden, to gladden the hearts of his parents, 
two other parental hearts, in a home some 
hundred miles north-east of the capital, were 
disappointed and saddened by the advent of 
" nothing but a girl," a portraiture of whom 
may make a good " companion picture " for 
that of old Talal, since, like him, she in mature 
life migrated to the new capital, where, in 
old age, she learned and received the simple 
gospel story, and, like him, went home, being 
about ninety years of age. During this time 
she had lived with a husband nearly half a 
century, and remained a widow thirty-three 




GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 305 

years. Her early life, like that of old Gara- 
bed, was passed amid scenes of oppression 
and violence, but among Koords rather than 
Turks. Like him, she was a person of tall, 
erect form, and graceful movements; but here 
the likeness ceases. While we could not 
surely certify to her uniformly conscientious 
truthfulness from the first, we can say, that 
if, during her later years, she ever told lies, 
it must have been some as the good old fa- 
ther of the faithful did, — when under very 
strong temptation. Nor was she apparently 
covetous. 

The natural traits for which she was 
most noted were fearless energy, gratitude 
for favors received, and religiousness. The 
last made her devoted in performance of the 
rites and duties of the Armenian Church, and 
equally conscientious in acting up to her new 
found gospel light. Her fearlessness and 
energy are best illustrated by the fact, that 
20 



306 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 

when seventy years old, unattended by any 
one to care for her, simply hiring an animal 
in a caravan going thither, she set out upon 
a six-months' pilgrimage to the holy city, 
Jerusalem ; which visit gave her the surname 
Haji (" Pilgrim "), the name which the Turks 
apply also to those of their faith who have 
paid their devotions at the sacred shrine in 
Mecca. We suggest, for the investigation of 
the curious, why it is that while Armenian 
males who have seen the holy sepulcher are 
called in their own tongue Mahdesee (" Seer 
of the death") as well as Haji, females 
receive only the Turkish appellation, one 
which is practically more honorable, as being 
in the ruling tongue. 

We regret not having obtained the story 
of her journey from the mouth of the old 
pilgrim herself; but we can easily imagine 
most of the scenes in Jerusalem itself and 
the holy places about it, — the eager, igno- 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 307 

rant, fanatical, frenzied devotion at the sup- 
posed sacred sites of the birth, the crucifixion, 
and the burial of our Lord, and the process of 
plundering in those dens of thieves hard by, 
the homes of the ecclesiastics. Her daugh- 
ter, with an apparent unconsciousness of its 
wrongfulness, characteristic of those living 
under such . a government, tells us of the 
tone of triumph with which the holy pilgrim, 
on her return, presenting her child with 
materials for a suit of clothes, exclaimed, " I 
bought these in the holy city, and hid them 
in my shalvars (Turkish trousers), and thus 
escaped paying duty at the gates, and have 
brought them so all the way." And on the 
way she alone of all the caravan escaped pay- 
ing a tax in gross, levied near Damascus by 
the Arabs, who carried off horses and all, 
except the one on which she rode, which she 
put to his highest speed, and thus saved him 
to his owner, who, stripped of all his other 



808- 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED • 



possessions, reached Harpoot some time after 
her arrival here. 

| At another time, hearing a cry from a 
neighbor's house, she rushed in to find the 
master crying out in helpless distress because 
four gypsy women were robbing his house. 
The courageous crusader gave them all a 
sound beating, and sent them on their way. 

She seems to have been of that rare class 
whose physical force is increased by anger. 
And, while giving her characteristics, we 
may as well whisper a confession, that, like 
the rest of us mortals, the good lady, both 
before and after the beginning of her saintly 
experience, did at times get angry, only, per- 
haps, a little oftener than some of us, and a 
little more so. 

A characteristic story by a person at our 
elbow, illustrating this impetuous weakness, 
we refrain from telling, lest, to accidental 
ears, it pass at a premium. Suffice it to say, 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 309 



that, even in her later and more saintly days, 
our Haji had occasion often to recall the 
divine declaration, " He that is slow to 
anger is better than the mighty, and he 
that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh 
a city." 

Almost immediately on the coming of Mr. 
Dunmore to Harpoot, she, with her daughter 
(wife of " God's Bedros ") and family, at- 
tached themselves to the gospel party. Unfor- 
tunately, her perhaps waning courage and 
spirit were not equal to the labor of learning 
to read ; and thus the Bible was to her eyes 
a sealed book. But it could not be such to 
her ears ; for she was always glad when she 
could go into the house of the Lord. Of 
this privilege she seldom or never allowed 
herself to be deprived. Only a week before 
her death, when on a communion sabbath, 
on account of her feebleness, she was urged 
to remain at home, with the promise that the 



810 GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 



elements should be brought to her there, 
she refused, saying, " No ! I will go on ray 
own feet." 

She was constant and frequent in secret 
prayer, so much so, that her daughter, who 
has the reputation of being less heavenly- 
minded, once said to her, " You go so often 
to your little room, that you will bring J esus 
down into it." To which she replied, " He 
is my all." 

But, though she loved much, she knew 
very little, if one can be said to do so who 
has heart-knowledge of Christ crucified. So 
little head and tongue knowledge had she, 
that she made three attempts before getting 
into the church, and then only got in because 
we who knew her decided that come in she 
must. Any questions about Christian doc- 
trine soon bewildered her poor old head; 
and she would exclaim, " I'm only a poor old 
woman. I don't know any thing ; " adding, 



GRACE ILLUSTRATE^. 311 

one day, putting her hand upon her heart, 
" But I know I love Jesus." 

So all doctrinal questions were dropped 
next time ; and all the examination con- 
densed into this, " Haji Anna, what do you 
hate most ? " — " Sin." — " And whom do 
you love most?" — " Jesus." So, on this tes- 
timony of her tongue and life, she was wel- 
come to the Lord's table ; and no one 
repented of the step. 

In the kindness of her heart, she prayed 
that her death might not take place in the 
winter, because then the sexton would suffer 
so much from cold in digging her grave in 
the rocky soil of the Harpoot cemetery. She 
had her wish, dying on the 30th of July. 
One more petition she asked of the Lord. 
She very much dreaded the physical death- 
struggle, and often said, " Lord, it will be 
hard to die. Be thou with me then." The 
dreaded struggle came not ; for she died 



312 GRACE ILLUSTRATED . 

unexpectedly, as quietly as a child drops to 
sleep. During the few days of her illness, 
she frequently uttered brief ejaculatory 
prayers, such as, " Jesus, I have trusted in 
thee. Be with me." The day before her 
death, she suddenly called her daughter, 
who finding her much excited, and looking 
upward, inquired, "Mother, what has hap- 
pened ? " — " My brother Bedros came," she 
replied, referring to a favorite brother, who 
died about forty years ago. Shall we call 
all such seeming appearances of the loved 
and departed to the dying mere fancies ? or 
are they sometimes but foretastes to the 
departing soul of the blessed companionships 
of the spirit-world? Do others than those 
whom Jesus loves and calls see such messen- 
gers from the yet unseen world to which 
they are departing ? 

Her last words were in token of gratitude 
to a little grandson, who brought her some 



GRACE ILLUSTRATED. 313 

grapes. " God bless the boy ! " said she ; and, 
without any sign of the near approach of 
death, instantly passed away, and passed, as 
we can not doubt, into the presence of him 
in whom she had trusted. 




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